#anyways . her and chris are so close and i adore them so MUCH do you understand.

[jillval]

when jill told chris that when she was under control of wesker and all she could think about was "killing all of you". rly did... break me ! to know she tried so hard to desperately fight off wesker but failed to do so and that self hatred she must really feel is so insane to me. like i do believe that even after his death, jill pretty much felt like a horrible person. i do feel like that there is some sort of survivor's guilt because i do feel like she would have thought that she should have been killed right along with him. the way she considers herself weak, etc. the way she lost herself along the way to recovery. the way she covers herself up because if she looks at that scar, she's just going to be reminded. i know people bitch about her old model being used in death island and like i too am the one that bitches; but her trying to find herself and going back to where she was even more traumatized... girl. i just feel ill. i might go into full deetz tomorrow.

[2kverrr]

MATT TAYLOR || Dating Headcanons

UNTIL DAWN || 2.2k Words

like every other year, the washington family open up their lodge to their teenagers for the winter. everybody had been waiting for this time of year, booze all week long, no rules, only friends, snowfights, blasting music in the middle of nowhere - to put it shortly, it's haven.

big movie nights on the big projector with hot chocolates and lots and lots of booze

you and matt had been plotting activities since summer, dodgeball in the main living area - come on, it's massive. what else are you meant to do in a room that big?

sledding - even if it meant falling off the edge of a cliff, its all apart of the fun.

matt loved making plans with you, you've never been too sure why, because you're not very punctual, you're an extremely dangerous driver and quite forgetful.

he's an attractive guy, sporty and in shape, really kind; it was a mystery to you why he was still single. it's not like girls actually go for brains anymore - you don't think so anyway.

secretly the group were rooting for the two of you, you oblivious of course, but matt had planned this all out, all fun and games but then you 'accidentally' trip or 'accidentally' fall and in desperate need of a knight in shining armour, then that's where he comes in, heroic and masculine, you are immediately in love with him, you get married, move to fiji and have 4 kids (the first of the bunch HAD to be called matt. jr). it's pretty specific.

it's the day of the winter break we'd all been waiting for, mike had already prepped matt for this big breakthrough. mike slaps his hand onto his face and slowly drags it drown with a grown, "bro, stop being such a pussy - worst she can say is no. no?" the two continue to stroll towards the lodge, slightly unsure where they were headed in the snowy atmosphere. “yeah, i get that,” he replied, his voice barely above a whisper, “but what if she laughs at me?” the thought made his stomach twist uneasily, and he shot mike a frantic glance. you knew matt's used to being the object of jealousy, he's much like mike in that sense, he doesn't have to do much to be adored by people. “dude, she’s not some goddess in a tower,” mike said, rolling his eyes. “she's just a girl! think about it. you’ve spent half your life being friends, spilling deepest and darkest secrets, spending the majority of your time together - hell even your distant family have nicknames for him. "god damn it man! you know her better than anyone, so you should be first to know how she'd react.” matt shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to portray an air of confidence he didn’t truly feel. “just be yourself. you’ve got this.” he whispers, spotting you exiting from the ski lift, patting matt on the shoulder and leaving him with you.

the walk up was oddly awkward, in fact the first 3 days were uncomfortable with the curly-headed boy.

of course, that did not stop you from getting black out drunk every night. day drinking faded into beer pong, then faded into shot competitions, then another cheeky drink when you woke up to prevent any hangover.

matt tried his hardest to get you to lay off the drink, but automatically josh would interrupt and tempt you even more.

it had to be past midnight at this rate, ashley fell asleep on the couch with chris, beth gently placing a blanket over the two of them. sam was attempting to defuse a row between mike and emily as hannah observed hopefully, while josh was falling asleep mid-conversation with jess - embarrassing. all while you were basically fighting matt to grab the bottle out of his hands. “give!” you reach out, but just like every other time, matts long arms push at your shoulder to keep your distance. you huff, stumbling back with half closed eyes, “cocksucker. i’ll find something else. hell - i’d eat crack if josh had any.” you remark with flailing arms. you had promised yourself a good time, a good time that didn’t involve battling your best friend for a taste of liquor. "come on, how about we go find the biggest bed for you to sleep in, i'm sure emily won't notice." his eyebrows raise, awaiting your drunken response. your mouth drops in a shocked manor and your eyebrows furrow as though your offended, "wow - matt, nice going." you try to cross your arms but you end up stumbling into the counter, the boy's hands immediately reach out to stabilise you. "it'd take a lot more than that to take me to bed, thank you very much, mr taylor." you scold, trying to inject a sense of indignation into your slurred words. the room felt like it was swaying gently; perhaps it was the alcohol or maybe just your overwhelming desire to keep your balance. you glared at matt, half-heartedly trying to regain your composure, but the corners of your mouth couldn't help but twitch into a smirk.

you couldn't remember much after that, besides the blinding light bursting through the curtains beaming into your eyes, only a single silhouette there to block it.

you're quite used to getting black out drunk, in fact you've got a casual routine, wake up, hole into your head until you stumble towards the cabinet wherever you are, managing to grab some sort of pill. lie in the bath - this is a crucial step. no water besides from when you awkwardly attempt to drink some from the tap. eventually you throw up the pills you'd taken, so you take a few more. at this point you should be okay to get up and carry on with your day.

you tell yourself this is how it’s meant to be; the routine is as much a part of your identity as the lingering pallor in your cheeks. you’ll put on a brave face, mask the chaos with a smile, and carry on with your day, ever-so-slightly hopeful that today might be different.

though you're not so used to going on a three day bender, every drink you consume having at least a drop of some form of alcohol. so your routine didn't exactly apply.

"hey," a voice whispers, slowly placing a cold cloth on your head, “you okay?” it’s light and gentle, a contrast to the erratic thrum inside your skull.

you squint against the light and the silhouette shifts, revealing matt, but this time with a softer expression, worry etched into the corners of his eyes. “you were insane last night,” he says, half-smiling, half-concerned. matt takes a deep breath, the worry still lingering in his eyes, and leans back in his chair, allowing you some space.

“seriously, what were you thinking?” he asks, his tone shifting to something more serious.

“you can’t just push yourself like that, especially when you know you haven’t slept in days.” the warmth of his concern wraps around you, thick and palpable, grounding you even as the room spins slightly.

"shit, " you roll over, while trying to sit yourself up, "i'm really sorry" your hands slowly and deeply massage your face, "can't remember a thing."

matt softly chuckles, placing his hands onto the arm rests, “well, where to begin? you were fighting me for a drink. scolded me for tying to sleep with you, which was the opposite of what i was doing. you searched the house for cigarettes and eventually gave up and tried to uber 3 bricks of coke to the lodge. erm… you threw up in the hot tub, on the counter, on emily, on me and i think a bit of miles show when you threw up on emily for the second time.”

you suppress a groan, sinking back into the chair as matt’s words cascade over you, each one accompanied by an embarrassing flashback that jolts through your mind like electric shocks.

"what?" it was all you could say. frozen and still in your own embarrassment.

“oh! and let’s not forget the part where you tried to convince jessica that she was actually a mystical mermaid forced on earth to enchant her way into human hearts."

you open your mouth to speak but the curly-haired boy continues.

“-not quite done yet, darling. you couldn’t let go of this ‘mermaid theory’, convinced you could see jess’s scales. so you flung your drink at her and then yelled ‘be free, my aquatic queen’ right in her face.”

you wince, burying your head in your hands. “for fuck's sake, please tell me you're lying,” you let out a muffled groan. matt's infectious laughter rings in your ears, despite your mortification and god awful pain you're in.

matt leans forward, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “and after your mermaid debacle, you decided to perform a dramatic interpretation of 'under the Sea' from The Little Mermaid for the whole living room."

you immediately butt in, "liar!" you rarely ever laugh in front of your friends, never mind whatever this is.

"i swear I’ve never seen sam laugh and cry at the same time.” he shakes his head, barely able to contain his amusement as he gestures broadly, “you were flapping your arms like a fish out of water, and the way you-“

you roll your eyes, “enough!” you raise your voice, a slight anger in your tone as your embarrassment begins to ebb. you immediately feel bad for the once giddy boy, "sorry, i don't usually tend to have hangovers this bad…" you say, a hand attempting to tame the pounding in you heard, you put the boy at ease with a smile, "…did i at least have a good audience?"

"an audience of friends who might never look at you the same way again,” he teases, but his smile is warm and understanding. “but hey, that’s what makes us family, right? You do something outrageous, and we love you for it. maybe not jess… or emily. but the rest of us do. i love you.” his words hang in the air, unsure of their stance, good bad? neither of you knew.

“you love me?” you manage to say, half teasing and half genuinely astonished, heart fluttering uncomfortably in your chest.

he briefly fixes his posture, shuffling in his seat, “maybe. even thought you can be a bitch and you have a slight alcohol issue, you’re still lovable.”

you take a moment to take a note of reality, the mess on the floor, presumably caused by you. your hair was unspeakable, makeup smudged, deep and heavy eye bags, one of your lashes hanging off your cheek while your other was probably exploring the outside, it’s definitely… a look.

“even after all this?” you wave down your body and across the room

he leans forward, fiddling with his thumbs, eyes locking onto yours with an intensity that makes your heart race. “that’s exactly it,” he says gently, “you’re unpredictable, messy and unapologetically you, and i think it’s fucking awesome. you’re so… so, so, so real.”

his sincerity makes the room feel smaller, as it the weight of his words could encircle you both in an element of quiet intimacy. you can throw but smile, your heart swelling. “so, what does this mean for us?” you query hopefully.

“maybe it’s the start of something new.”

you made the bold decision to lay off of the drink for your own sake (also because it took you the rest of the week to recover) - instead you’d accompany matt in whatever he was up to.

mike felt a bit disappointed that his pep talk was wasted on a sappy conversation rather than a manly knight in shining armour act.

jess eventually forgave you, insuring you tell her everything about the two of you. emily would occasionally listen in nonchalantly as she clearly hadn’t forgave you for the sick-tuation (get it? i’m so sorry)

matt takes pride in waking you up with a drink or some food, it’s a bit difficult when your only options are out of the washingtons’ sparse cabinets.

you had to make a slight change in your ‘how you got together’ story when meeting his parents, either way they loved you, and thought you were a great reason for matt to take his laser focus off of football.

speaking of football, you’re at every game wearing some old spare shirt he had laying around.

when he first met your parents, god it was something you should’ve prevented. matt sides with your mum’s every word, dishes, staying out too late, waking up too early. honestly everything and anything.

he’s easily the most caring, you’re always on his mind, your wants, your needs, what you’re doing, how you’re doing.

in return you help him study, you’re not much smarter, but with matt, you find fun in the coursework.

[estellan0vella]

Love In Print│Bang Chan

Chapter Twenty: Freckles Of Deceit SS: - (ignore time stamps and dates) Word Count: 6.1K Content Warnings:

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As Chan and Ayame descend the stairs, their hands clasped together, Ayame huffs quietly, her heels clicking against the polished wood. Chan's grip tightens slightly each time she takes a step, as though she might faceplant at any moment.

"Seriously," Ayame says, throwing him an exasperated glance. "I practically live in stilettos. Your knight-in-shining-armour act is wasted on me."

"I'm being a gentleman," Chan retorts, not letting go. "And this is the thanks I get? Unbelievable. You're mean, shortcake."

"At least I'm consistent," Ayame quips, tugging lightly against his grip as if testing his resolve. Spoiler: he doesn't let go.

At the bottom of the staircase, Ayame stops abruptly, causing Chan to bump into her slightly. She turns to face him, narrowing her eyes. "Your tie's crooked."

"I'm not falling for that one again," Chan says immediately, taking a step back. "You're gonna pull it tight like you're in the fucking mafia, aren't you?"

Ayame rolls her eyes, stepping closer anyway. "You're impossible. It's actually crooked, genius. Stay still."

Chan stays frozen, watching her fingers deftly adjust the knot. She works quickly, her eyes focused, and he feels the warmth of her hands brushing against his chest through the fabric of his shirt. When she steps back, she tilts her head, inspecting her handiwork.

"There. Fixed," she says, satisfied.

"No attempted strangulation?" Chan teases, his voice low, as his hands move to rest lightly on her arms.

Ayame smirks up at him. "Nope. I need you alive for later. Dead men can't do all the things I'm imagining right now."

Chan barks out a laugh, his grip on her arms tightening slightly. "No more discount Chan?"

Ayame shakes her head, her smirk softening into something more genuine. "Nope. I prefer the real thing."

Chan's grin falters for a moment as something warm flickers in his gaze. His eyes flicker down to her dress, lingering for a beat before he meets her eyes again. "You look gorgeous in this, by the way. It matches your eyes."

Ayame blinks, caught off guard by the sudden sincerity in his tone. She's about to reply when a high-pitched, cheerful voice cuts through the moment.

"Chris!"

They both turn toward the source, and a petite, elegant woman strides toward them. She's dressed in a form-fitting navy dress, her dark hair swept into an effortless updo. Her face lights up as she closes the distance, pulling Chan into a tight hug.

"Hi, Ma," Chan greets, his voice softer as he wraps an arm around her.

"You made it!" Jess exclaims, pulling back slightly to pat his cheek. "You didn't even text me when you got here, you brat."

"I got distracted," Chan says, glancing at Ayame with a sheepish grin.

Jess follows his gaze, her eyes landing on Ayame. Her smile widens instantly. "Oh! And who's this?"

Ayame steps forward, extending her hand. "I'm Ayame. It's so nice to meet you, Dr. Bang."

Jess waves off the title with a laugh. "Oh, call me Jess, please. 'Dr. Bang' makes me sound like I'm about to perform a colonoscopy. And finally, I get to meet you!" Jess takes Ayame's hands in hers, her grip warm and firm. "She's just adorable, Chris. I'm keeping her. Forever."

Ayame lets out a nervous laugh, glancing at Chan. He's grinning like the Cheshire Cat, clearly enjoying her flustered reaction. "Uh, thanks. That's very... sweet."

"Sweet, smart, beautiful," Jess says, tilting her head as she examines Ayame with the precision of a seasoned surgeon. "What else am I missing?"

"I'm really good at Mario Kart," Ayame offers weakly.

Jess laughs, delighted. "Oh, I like her, Chris. I like her so much."

Chan shrugs, his voice laced with amusement. "Told you she was a catch."

Jess glances between them, her smile growing sly. "Well, don't just stand here. The rest of the family is going to love her."

"Oh no," Ayame mutters under her breath, shooting a glare at Chan who smirks. "You set me up."

The snow drifts softly down, landing on Ayame's hair and shoulders as she adjusts her green dress. Sitting next to Chan in the front row, she sneaks a glance at his father, Jack, whose expression is as cold as the weather. Jess sits on Chan's other side, beaming, a stark contrast to her husband's stone-like demeanour.

Jack leans over, his voice low and sharp. "Didn't think you'd show up. Not after the last time."

Chan's jaw tightens, but before he can respond, Jess places a gentle hand on her husband's arm. "Jack," she says brightly, deflecting. "This is Ayame, Chris's date."

Jack's gaze shifts to Ayame, scanning her from head to toe with a barely concealed frown. "You look young," he says bluntly, before turning his attention back to the aisle as if she isn't worth another second.

Ayame blinks, momentarily stunned by the sheer audacity. She leans toward Chan, whispering, "Your dad makes you look like a fucking Care Bear."

Chan stifles a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand. "A Care Bear?"

"Yeah," Ayame murmurs, glancing at Jack. "But like... the kind that eats children in its free time."

Chan shakes with silent laughter, his shoulders vibrating against hers. "Stop," he hisses under his breath. "You're going to get me in trouble."

"You're already in trouble," Ayame replies smugly. "Might as well have fun while we're here."

The opening chords of the wedding march begin to play, drawing their attention to the aisle. Felix appears at the far end, his tailored black tuxedo fitting him like a glove. The lights reflect off his perfectly styled blonde hair, and his freckles give him a boyish charm that balances his sharp, sophisticated look.

Ayame leans toward Chan, her voice soft but teasing. "Your brother cleans up well. Too bad he's not single."

Chan gives her a sidelong glance. "Don't even think about it, shortcake. He's a good guy. You'd ruin him."

Ayame pretends to sigh dramatically. "Damn. There goes my chance at happiness."

"Play some Bonnie Tyler," Chan mutters. "Where have all the good men gone?"

Ayame snickers, biting her lip to keep from laughing too loudly.

The flower girl starts down the aisle, her tiny hands flinging petals with wild abandon. Half of them don't even land on the aisle, but her determined expression earns her a collective "aww" from the crowd.

"She's adorable," Ayame whispers, her tone genuinely warm.

"Not as adorable as you freezing your ass off," Chan retorts, noticing her arms crossed tightly against the chill.

"I'm fine," Ayame insists, her teeth chattering faintly. "You wanted me to wear this dress because it's booby, so I'm toughing it out."

Chan doesn't reply with words. Instead, he wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. The warmth of his body seeps through her thin dress, and Ayame allows herself to lean into him slightly, though she refuses to admit it feels good.

"Better?" he asks, smirking.

"Shut up," she mutters, though her lips twitch upward.

As Soojin appears at the end of the aisle, Ayame's attention shifts. The bride is radiant in a sparkling white gown that hugs her figure before flaring into a dramatic train. Her glossy hair and flawless makeup scream perfection, and Felix's expression lights up with pure adoration as she approaches.

Jess dabs at her eyes with a tissue, whispering, "She looks so beautiful."

"She does," Ayame agrees, then leans toward Chan, her voice low. "But, uh, has she got lip fillers?"

Chan doesn't miss a beat. "And Botox. Half her face is frozen. She's had everything done—lips, jawline, cheekbones. Her face is worth more than my car. Probably wouldn't even dent if she was shot out of a cannon into a tree."

Ayame chokes back a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. "You're such a gossip."

"Stick with me, shortcake," Chan replies, his tone light. "There's plenty more where that came from."

As the ceremony begins, Ayame shifts in her seat, trying to stay warm and interested. Chan notices her restlessness and leans closer. "Bored already?"

"I thought weddings were supposed to be fun," Ayame mutters, glancing at him.

Chan smirks. "Not when my father and Soojin's father paid for it, and her mom planned the whole thing. That woman has the personality of unbuttered toast."

Ayame grins, leaning into him slightly. "I like this side of you—the honest, slightly bitter Chan. Feels real."

He chuckles, his thumb brushing her shoulder absentmindedly. "Stick around, and you'll see all my sides."

As Felix and Soojin exchange their vows, Ayame tilts her head, watching the scene unfold. Despite her usual cynicism, she feels a small tug at her heart. She glances at Chan, who's watching his brother with quiet pride.

"I bet you'd make a good groom," she whispers, the words slipping out before she can stop them.

Chan's gaze flicks to her, his smirk softening into something gentler. "Maybe. But I think I'd need a pretty great partner for that."

Ayame raises an eyebrow, her lips twitching. "Good luck finding one."

Chan grins, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Oh, I think I'm on the right track."

Ayame stands by the bar, clutching an empty champagne flute in one hand. A waiter glides past, and with the precision of a seasoned wedding attendee, she snags a fresh glass of champagne. She barely raises it to her lips when a voice slices through the pleasant hum of the reception.

"Felix's family is driving me fucking insane. Please tell me you have a joint hidden somewhere."

Ayame turns to see Soojin, the bride herself, standing next to her. She's stunning, of course, with her gown catching the light like a goddamn diamond commercial. But there's a sharpness in her gaze and a mischievous curl to her lips that Ayame immediately respects.

"Oh, I fucking wish," Ayame replies, a grin tugging at her mouth.

Soojin sighs dramatically, leaning against the bar like a damsel in distress. "Meth, then? Rat poison? Any controlled substance to get me through another conversation with Dr. Jack Bang."

Ayame laughs, shaking her head. "Sorry to disappoint. Just champagne over here."

Soojin clicks her tongue. "Ugh, you're so boring. But thanks for not lying to me. Everyone else keeps telling me how perfect everything is. Even my mother-in-law is acting like I didn't veto half her ideas."

Ayame chuckles. "It's a beautiful wedding, though."

Soojin waves her off, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, thanks. I had to threaten the florist's firstborn to make it happen, but sure. Anyway, you're Ayame, right?"

Ayame freezes for half a second but nods, holding her glass a little tighter. "That's me."

Soojin gives her a knowing look, her smile widening. "I've been dying to meet you. Felix keeps saying you're the reason Chris actually showed up today."

Ayame blinks, caught off guard. "I'm pretty sure that's not true."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it is," Soojin replies, leaning in slightly, her voice dropping conspiratorially. "Chris doesn't come to family stuff unless someone drags him there. And, babe, you've got 'dragged him here' written all over you."

Ayame forces a small laugh, unsure of how to respond. "Well, I guess I'm doing my part."

Soojin's gaze sharpens, her smile turning sly. "Worked out for the best, though, right? I mean, Chris and I were never a good match."

Ayame's brain stalls. "Sorry—what?"

Soojin tilts her head, her expression turning playful. "Oh my god. He didn't tell you, did he? Chris and I dated for, like, a year."

Ayame's stomach flips. "A year?" she echoes, her voice carefully neutral.

Soojin nods, laughing lightly. "Yeah, back when Felix and I were just friends. Honestly, Chris and I never really clicked. It was always... I don't know, surface-level? But Felix? We just made sense in every way. Once we figured that out, everything fell into place."

Ayame stares at her, every muscle in her body tightening. "Huh," she says, her voice dry. "Imagine that."

"And you're only twenty-five, right?" Soojin adds, her tone too casual to be anything but pointed.

Ayame's nails dig into the stem of her glass. "That's right."

Soojin leans back, her smile softening. "Well, you've done a great job, you know. Keeping Chris grounded. That's not easy. Anyway, I should go mingle before Jess notices I'm avoiding her. It was nice meeting you."

Before Ayame can respond, Soojin drifts off, radiant and carefree, leaving Ayame standing alone by the bar with a hollow feeling in her chest.

She glances across the room and locks eyes with Chan. He's standing with Jess and Felix, mid-laugh, but the moment their gazes meet, his expression shifts. His smile falters, and his eyes widen slightly as he notices Soojin walking away from Ayame.

Ayame lifts her glass in mock salute before draining it in one go, the champagne burning its way down her throat. She waves down a passing waiter, holding up her empty glass. "Another, please," she snaps, her voice sharper than she intends.

Chan starts to step toward her but hesitates, caught by Jess's hand on his arm. He looks back at Ayame, concern flickering across his face, but she's already downing her second glass like it's water.

The waiter returns with a third, and Ayame takes it without hesitation. Her hand shakes slightly as she raises it to her lips. "Cheers," she mutters bitterly, her voice low. "To clarity. And fucking chaos."

The cold bites at Ayame's exposed arms as she leans against the railing at the lookout point, staring blankly over the snowy landscape. The lodge, surrounded by towering pines and draped in white, looks like something out of a postcard. But Ayame doesn't feel the magic. Her dress is useless against the biting chill, yet going back inside feels impossible—too many fake smiles and polite conversations waiting to swallow her whole.

Behind her, the crunch of footsteps through the snow breaks the stillness. Ayame doesn't turn, her jaw tightening as the sound draws closer. She knows who it is before she hears his voice.

"You're going to freeze your ass off, shortcake," Chan says, shrugging off his coat and draping it over her shoulders.

Ayame pulls the coat tight around herself, but she doesn't look at him. "Who let you off your leash? Did your family even notice you left?"

Chan leans against the railing beside her, hands shoved into his pockets. "Not yet. What are you doing out here in nothing but a dress? Trying to test your limits?"

She shrugs, keeping her gaze fixed on the distant treeline. "Needed some air. People in there talk too much."

"Pot, meet kettle," Chan teases gently. "You're the queen of running your mouth."

"Yeah, but I'm funny," Ayame shoots back. "Everyone else in there just wants to talk about how the napkins match the floral arrangements."

Chan chuckles under his breath. "Fair point."

For a moment, neither of them says anything. The silence between them is heavier than the snow falling softly around them. Finally, Ayame breaks it, her voice quieter now.

"Is she the reason you brought me here?" she asks, not meeting his gaze.

Chan straightens slightly, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

"Soojin," Ayame clarifies, turning to face him at last. "Did you bring me here because of her? Because you wanted to rub it in her face or something?"

His brow furrows, confusion giving way to something softer. "No. No, Ayame, I brought you here because I wanted you here. That's it."

She narrows her eyes at him, the corners of her mouth pulling down. "Then why the fuck didn't you tell me about her?"

Chan exhales, the cloud of his breath disappearing into the cold air. "Because I didn't think it mattered anymore. And honestly? I didn't want to talk about it. It's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing?" Ayame echoes, incredulous. "You didn't cheat, Chan. You didn't dump her for her sibling. You're the one who got fucked over."

He looks away, his jaw tightening. "Yeah, but telling people about it makes it real, you know? And everyone already sees Felix as perfect. I didn't need another reason to feel like the failure in the family."

Ayame studies him for a long moment, her irritation softening into something more empathetic. "Chan, your brother might be the golden child, but he's got freckles of deceit."

A startled laugh escapes Chan, and he turns to her, his smirk returning. "Freckles of deceit?"

"Yup." Ayame nods solemnly. "And Soojin? Fake lips, fake ass, fake personality."

Chan huffs a laugh, shaking his head. "You don't hold back, do you?"

"Not when I'm right," she replies, lifting her chin. "Which is all the time."

He leans on the railing again, looking out over the snow. "You're not wrong. It's just hard seeing them together. Like, it shouldn't bother me anymore, but it does."

"Of course it does," Ayame says, her tone softening. "You're not a robot. Today sucks for you."

Chan glances at her, his lips quirking into a small smile. "It sucks less with you here."

She grins, linking her arm through his. "Damn right. Now, let's go find some booze. I'm pretty sure champagne is the only thing keeping this family reunion bearable."

Chan laughs, shaking his head. "I'll drink to that."

As they turn back toward the lodge, Ayame glances up at him, her sly grin returning. "Oh, and just so you know, apparently I'm your 'younger model.' That's what everyone in there is calling me."

Chan snorts, his shoulders shaking. "Figures. You're way cuter than Soojin, though."

"Damn straight," Ayame says, nudging him playfully.

Together, Ayame and Chan walk back into the reception hall. The warm glow of the lights and soft hum of laughter and conversation fill the air. Jess spots them almost immediately, her warm smile shifting to mild curiosity.

"Oh, where have you two been?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Outside," Chan says smoothly, snagging two champagne flutes from a passing waiter and handing one to Ayame. His movements are so casual, so practiced, it's almost infuriating. "Needed some fresh air."

Jess's eyes narrow slightly as she looks between them, her maternal instincts clearly on high alert, but she decides to let it slide. She turns back to Jack, who's deep in conversation with Felix. However, Jack, ever the hawk, zeroes in on Ayame.

"Ayame," Jack says, his voice carrying just enough bite to make it clear he's baiting her. "When you first met Chris, what did you think?"

Ayame tilts her head to the side, feigning a moment of thoughtful consideration. Then, with a sweet smile that could cut glass, she says, "Hmm. I thought he was very good-looking, cold, domineering, and freakishly uptight."

Jack lets out a sharp laugh, clearly not expecting the jab. "I thought you needed ambition to be domineering."

"Jack," Jess snaps, shooting her husband a glare that could freeze fire.

"I'm kidding," Jack says with a faint smirk, though the edge in his tone remains.

Chan, leaning casually against the bar beside Ayame, grins. "For the record, I thought Ayame was very smart, but also a spineless kiss-ass."

Ayame gasps, mock-offended. "Excuse me?"

"It's true," Chan replies, raising his champagne glass with a wink. "It was hate at first sight."

Ayame shakes her head, raising her glass to meet his. "Cheers to that."

"Cheers," Chan echoes, clinking his glass against hers.

Felix approaches their small group, tapping Jack on the shoulder. "Dad, it's time for the speech."

Jack nods, standing and adjusting his tie. "Speech time, huh? Your mother wrote me some notes, but I think I'll just wing it."

"Oh, god," Chan mutters under his breath, dragging a hand down his face. "Lord give us all fucking strength"

Ayame leans in closer to him, her voice low. "Is this going to be bad?"

"Buckle up, shortcake," he whispers. "This is going to be a fucking ride."

Jack steps into the centre of the room, clearing his throat as the murmuring dies down. "I always expected great things from my son," he begins, his voice carrying a note of formality. "And he has never disappointed me. He excelled in med school and has become a truly remarkable physician. It's been an honour to watch him grow into the man he is today. A son any father would be proud of."

Ayame feels Chan's hand brush against hers, and she glances at him. His face is impassive, but his grip tightens slightly when she laces her fingers through his.

Jack continues, his voice warming slightly. "But of all the decisions Felix has made, marrying Soojin is easily the best. She's the perfect complement to him, and I couldn't ask for a better addition to this family."

The applause is polite but warm as Jack steps back, raising his glass toward the couple. Soojin beams, clutching Felix's hand tightly, but Ayame doesn't miss the way Chan's jaw tightens.

As the crowd disperses to mingle again, Chan leans down and murmurs, "Cover for me."

Ayame nods, watching him slip out of the room. She weaves through the guests until she ends up by the massive Christmas tree in the lodge lobby. The soft glow of the lights reflects off the ornaments, giving the scene a picture-perfect holiday feel.

Jess approaches with a knowing smile. "Hi, dear. Have you seen Chris?"

Ayame doesn't even flinch, smoothly lying through her teeth. "He went to find some painkillers. Said he had a headache."

Jess sighs, shaking her head. "That speech probably didn't help. Jack should've just stuck to my prepared remarks."

Ayame offers a sympathetic smile. "He did seem... off-script."

Jess laughs softly, stepping closer. "I'm glad you're here, Ayame. Chris has been talking about you for months."

Ayame blinks, caught off guard. "Months?"

Jess nods, her expression softening. "He says you drive him crazy—in a good way. That you challenge him like no one else does. I think taking that job at the publishing house might've been the best thing he ever did. And meeting you? That's probably the second-best."

Ayame's cheeks flush, and she ducks her head, unsure of how to respond. Before she can, Felix appears, grinning.

"You made it through the speech," he says lightly. Then his eyes flick to Ayame. "Ayame, you look much better."

Ayame narrows her eyes at him. "You prescribed me banana antibiotics."

Felix chuckles, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, it was effective, wasn't it?"

"I almost puked on my friend," Ayame counters dryly.

Jess places a hand on Felix's arm. "I need to get back inside before your father has another drink and starts telling everyone about his college days."

Ayame leans against the sturdy wooden post beside the massive Christmas tree, her champagne flute dangling from her fingertips. Felix stands beside her, his blonde hair catching the soft glow of the tree's twinkling lights. Outside, snow drifts lazily against the frosted glass windows, painting the lodge in a serene winter wonderland scene.

The silence between them stretches, comfortable but fragile, until Felix clears his throat and asks, "Do you think badly of me now?"

Ayame doesn't answer immediately. Instead, she stares into her champagne, her lips curving into a wry smile. "Freckles of deceit," she says dryly, tilting her head to look at him. "Blonde hair of betrayal. And that stupid Disney Prince face? Designed purely to deceive."

Felix lets out a laugh, the sound warm and genuine. "Fair enough. But in my defence, I didn't exactly plan for everything to happen the way it did."

"Oh, no?" Ayame drawls, turning to face him fully now, her expression sharp but not unkind. "Did you just accidentally fall into your brother's girlfriend? Was it a slip-and-slide situation?"

Felix winces, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ouch. Okay, I deserve that."

Ayame crosses her arms, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, you do."

He exhales, his breath fogging slightly in the chilly air of the lobby. "Look, I know I'm the asshole in this story, but... it wasn't what you think. Soojin and Chris weren't happy together. She was already halfway out the door when we- When it happened."

Ayame stares at him for a long moment, her face unreadable. "Halfway out the door doesn't mean you push her the rest of the way."

Felix opens his mouth to argue but stops, instead nodding slowly. "You're right."

"Damn right, I am," Ayame mutters, taking the last sip of her champagne and setting the glass down on a nearby table.

Felix watches her, a small, almost sad smile playing on his lips. "You're good for him, you know."

Ayame snorts, rolling her eyes. "Oh, yeah? What makes you think that?"

"I'm serious," Felix says, his tone earnest now. "I've never seen Chris like this. He's lighter, even when he's being an uptight bastard. It's like you've... balanced him out somehow."

"Balanced him out?" Ayame echoes, her voice tinged with disbelief. "You do realize most of our dynamic is me pissing him off, right?"

Felix laughs again, his dimples on full display. "Exactly. He needs that. Someone to challenge him. Chris is so used to being the one in control, the one everyone looks up to. You don't give a shit about any of that. You treat him like he's just... him."

Ayame's teasing expression falters for a moment, her gaze softening. "Huh," she says quietly, more to herself than to Felix.

Felix smiles, offering her his arm. "Come on, let's get back in there before my mother sends out a search party. You don't want to see her in full panic mode."

Ayame hesitates for a beat before slipping her arm through his, her fingers brushing lightly against the soft fabric of his tuxedo jacket. "Fine," she mutters, shaking her head. "But you still have to live with the fact that I'll never let you forget this. Ever."

"Fair trade," Felix replies, grinning as he leads her back toward the reception room. "But for the record, you might be my new favourite person. Don't tell my wife."

Ayame snorts, smirking. "Don't worry. She'd never believe you anyway."

As Ayame and Felix step into the wedding reception, the tension in the air is suffocating. Jack's voice, sharp and full of venom, cuts across the room, silencing the low murmur of conversation.

"An MBA," Jack sneers, standing tall and imperious, "and you're wasting your days running errands and playing house with some younger tramp who flaunts her tits like that makes up for her lack of brains."

Ayame's champagne flute trembles in her hand as her grip tightens. The crystal stem threatens to snap. Beside her, Felix winces, muttering, "I am so fucking sorry for him."

"It's fine," Ayame says tightly, though the edge in her voice suggests otherwise. "We aren't our parents."

Across the room, Jess places a hand on Jack's arm, her face pinched with frustration. "Jack," she says, her voice low but firm, "maybe you should take a walk before you say something you regret."

"I don't regret anything," Jack replies coldly, brushing her off.

And then Chan speaks, his tone calm but deadly sharp. "You do not talk about Ayame like that."

Jack scoffs, his disdain palpable. "Christopher, if you're content wasting your life, that's your problem. But let's not pretend you've made anything of yourself. If you don't want to be a doctor, at least have the decency to do something marginally noble."

Ayame steps forward, her heels clicking against the floor like a countdown to detonation. She narrows her eyes, her posture rigid as she stares Jack down. "You don't think publishing is noble?" she challenges, her voice loud enough to draw the attention of several nearby guests. "Contributing to culture? Creating stories that change lives?"

Jack barely looks at her, his lips curling in disdain. "I don't think your boy is making books, sweetheart. I think he's fetching coffee for somebody who is."

Ayame's jaw clenches, her fists curling at her sides. "Do not call me sweetheart," she says, her tone icy.

Jack finally turns to her, his gaze sweeping over her like she's insignificant. "And what are you going to do about it? You're just his young slut, flaunting your body to get places. You think you belong here?"

Chan's hand slams against the table, the sound reverberating through the room. Guests flinch, and Jess's eyes widen in shock. "Enough! You do not talk to her like that."

"Chan, it's fine," Ayame says, her voice low but steady, though her eyes blaze with fury. She places a hand on his arm, stopping him before he can escalate further. "Really. It's fine."

Chan turns to her, his expression conflicted, but Ayame shakes her head, gently pulling his hand away. She steps forward, squaring her shoulders and addressing Jack directly.

"You clearly know nothing about your son," she says, her voice calm but cutting. "So let me fill you in real quick."

"Ayame—" Chan starts, his voice softer now, but she cuts him off with a look.

"No, Chan," she says firmly. "He needs to hear this."

The room is holding its collective breath as Ayame sweeps her gaze around the gathered guests. "I'm sorry for the interruption," she says with mock politeness. "I actually like most of you. Really, you've been lovely. But this fucking guy?" She points a perfectly manicured finger at Jack. "He's a fucking dick."

Felix lets out a loud, unfiltered snort into his champagne, and Soojin quickly hides her laugh behind her hand, her shoulders shaking.

Jess covers her mouth, torn between horror and amusement, while Jack's face turns an alarming shade of red.

Ayame takes a step closer to Jack, her chin tilting up defiantly. "Chan has more integrity, more grit, and more brains in his little finger than you've ever had. You think he's wasting his life? Newsflash, your perfect little surgeon golden boy over there-" She gestures to Felix, who raises his glass with a sheepish grin. "-spent years following your orders, and you know what? Even he thinks you're full of shit."

"Ayame," Felix mutters, his tone half-warning, half-impressed.

Ayame squares her shoulders, her voice cutting through the murmurs in the room. "Chan's boss, who is CEO in title only, is a sleazy prick who can't even tie his own shoelaces without fucking it up. Chan runs that place. Actually, we both do."

A collective gasp ripples through the room, but Ayame doesn't flinch. She holds Jack's gaze, unrelenting. "The only reason L&M didn't go up in flames after the merger is because Chan oversaw a reduction of the workforce by- What was it?" She glances at Chan for confirmation.

Chan raises three fingers on one hand and five on the other.

"Fifty-three percent?" Ayame guesses, quirking an eyebrow.

Chan shakes his head, barely containing his amusement. "Thirty-five."

"Thirty-five percent," Ayame corrects herself, smirking. "Like I said, the whole time. Because I don't make mistakes. And because of that, over two hundred people kept their jobs. Two hundred families didn't lose their livelihoods. But yeah, Jack, he's not a doctor. Who the fuck cares?"

Felix snorts, turning away to hide his laughter. Soojin elbows him, her lips twitching as she tries not to grin. An elderly woman nearby gasps audibly, clutching her pearls like they're the only thing keeping her upright.

Ayame steps closer to Jack, her heels clicking sharply against the floor. "Here's what you don't get, Mr. Bang. Chan is smart. He's relentless. He's made me better at my job because I've had to compete with him every single day. He's the reason L&M didn't implode. He's the reason people still have jobs. And the fact that you can't see that your son is fucking amazing is... sad. Honestly, it's pathetic."

Jack opens his mouth to speak, but Ayame cuts him off, raising a finger. "And another thing, your whole dismissive attitude? The 'tramp' comments? It says a lot more about you than it does about me. And for the record, I flaunt my tits because they're fucking amazing, not to impress any man."

The elderly woman gasps again, louder this time, as if the weight of Ayame's words has knocked the air right out of her. Jess presses a hand to her mouth, her eyes sparkling with barely concealed laughter as Chan grins widely.

Ayame turns to Soojin and Felix, her tone suddenly lighter. "Anyway, congratulations to the happy couple. You both look stunning."

She pivots back to Jack, her smile disappearing. "And as for you? Fuck you, Mr. Bang. Fuck your outdated, arrogant opinions. Chan, let's go home."

Chan, who has been watching with an expression of unrestrained delight, grins even wider. "Best idea I've heard all day."

He steps up beside Ayame, slipping his hand around her waist as they turn to leave. Ayame pauses, glancing at Jess. Her expression softens as she says, "Jess, it was lovely meeting you."

Jess steps forward, cupping Ayame's face and planting a warm kiss on her cheek. "You too, darling. You're always welcome in our home. Well, mine, at least."

"Thank you," Ayame says, her voice sincere.

Jess turns to her son, her expression firm but loving. "Chris, call me later. I'm serious."

"Will do, Ma," Chan replies, grinning.

As they make their way toward the door, Felix raises his champagne glass, his voice loud and clear. "To Ayame. The best thing to ever happen to this wedding."

"To Ayame!" Soojin echoes, laughing as she clinks glasses with Felix.

Ayame glances back at the room one last time, catching Jack's stunned expression and Jess's knowing smile. She smirks, tilting her head toward Chan. "Ready to go?"

"Absolutely," Chan says, his arm tightening around her waist as they step out into the snowy afternoon.

Ayame links her arm through Chan's as they stride quickly out of the reception hall. The chilly afternoon air bites at her exposed skin, but the sting is nothing compared to the rush of adrenaline still surging through her. She glances back over her shoulder, cheeks flushed. "Oh my god, everyone was staring."

"You almost killed my aunt," Chan says with a teasing lilt, his voice vibrating with amusement. "She was clutching her pearls so hard I thought they'd snap."

Ayame groans, rolling her eyes. "I am so sorry. Truly, I didn't mean to give her a heart attack."

Chan laughs, his dimples deepening, making him look far younger than thirty. "Don't be. That was fucking brilliant, Lim Ayame. I'm actually mad I didn't record it. You verbally annihilated my father in front of all those people."

Ayame glares at him, tugging him forward. "Walk faster, people are staring!"

Chan slows deliberately, grinning. "Let them stare. You just delivered the speech of the century. Might as well bask in it."

"No, no, no," Ayame mutters. "I don't want them looking. I want to disappear. This is mortifying."

Chan's hand tightens gently around her arm, his tone soft but insistent. "Stop caring what people think, shortcake. They don't matter."

Ayame shoots him a deadpan look. "I can't help it. It's a disease. People-pleasing disorder."

"You need an antidote," Chan says, laughing as they reach his car. "Come on, hop in."

Ayame slides into the passenger seat with a dramatic sigh, crossing her legs and smoothing her dress. "I should be banned from weddings."

Chan slides in beside her, adjusts his mirrors, and starts the car. "If anything, you should be invited to more of them. You made that wedding memorable."

As they pull out of the snowy parking lot, Chan reaches over, resting his hand on Ayame's bare thigh. His fingers are warm, his thumb tracing slow circles against her skin. The motion sends a shiver up her spine, though she doesn't let it show.

"You're going to kill me," Ayame mutters, staring pointedly at his hand.

Chan smirks, his eyes focused on the road. "Oh, relax. It's just a hand."

"It's your hand," Ayame shoots back, her voice sharper than she intends. "There's nothing casual about it."

Chan's grin widens, his thumb pressing slightly harder. "You're dramatic, you know that?"

"Hmm, says the man who smirks like he's the villain in a K-drama," Ayame counters, resting her elbow on the door and staring out at the falling snow.

Chan chuckles. "So, what now?"

"Naked time," Ayame says matter-of-factly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

Chan barks out a laugh, his head falling back briefly before he focuses on the road again. "After naked time?"

Ayame pretends to think. "Rehydration? I don't know. Maybe we can solve world hunger if we're feeling ambitious."

Chan glances at her, his tone growing quieter, more serious. "Ayame, I've had a lot of women tell me I'm not the kind of guy you settle down with."

Ayame freezes for a moment, caught off guard by the shift in tone. "Is this where I start playing the tiny violin?"

Chan exhales, his hand pausing its motion on her thigh. "What I'm saying is, I'm not that guy to most people. But I want to be."

Ayame blinks, her gaze softening as she studies his profile. "You think that's what I'm doing? Just fucking around with you until I find someone else?"

Chan shrugs, his jaw tight. "I don't know. But I hope not."

She shifts in her seat, turning to face him more fully. "Bang Chan, you are a puzzle. One minute, you're shoving me into closets and pissing me off. The next, you're saying shit like this."

Chan glances at her, his expression lighter now, teasing. "Closets were your idea, by the way."

Ayame huffs out a laugh, rolling her eyes. "Whatever."

They fall into a comfortable silence for a moment, the tension between them easing slightly. Then Ayame sits up straighter, pointing out the window. "Drive-through. Coffee. Now."

Chan raises an eyebrow, smirking. "Bossy."

Ayame smirks back. "Damn right. You're paying, by the way."

Chan shakes his head, laughing as he steers the car toward the drive-through. "Anything else?"

"Maybe," Ayame says, her voice light but laced with mischief. "Depends on how good the whipped cream is."

Chan laughs, the sound warm and full as they roll up to the menu board. Outside, the snow falls in thick, lazy flakes, but inside the car, the world feels a little brighter, a little warmer, and infinitely more charged.

Taglist: @fackeraccount @ot8girlfie @nightmarenyxx @reimaybeidk

@ismelllikechlorine247 @drewsandsebastianswife @my-neurodivergent-world @rhonnie23 @hanji-coffee

@skzleeknowcore

[warpedpuppeteer]

buddie drabble: buck brings home a stray cat and eddie says no…. until eddie ends up being the only one the cat likes and he falls in love with it; established buddie, fluffy, chris is annoyed that the cat likes his dad more than him even though he feeds it treats

Thank you for the super adorable prompt! It's not all exactly as you wanted but I tried to stick to the prompt as close as I can. Hope you enjoy ☺️🫶🏽! (Link to AO3 is provided at the end for those who prefer that)

Fur-st Mew-ting

“No”. Eddie puts as much authority that he could muster in his best dad-voice. “Absolutely not”.

As expected, Christopher but dad’s him immediately.

“Look how cute he is, dad! And he has nowhere else to go!”, his son tries his best to make his case with his best puppy eyes.

Eddie looks over Christopher's curls where Buck is lurking in the background innocently.

His boyfriend is still in his uniform because he came here straight from work, and he is holding the tiniest kitten Eddie has ever seen close to his chest. It looks unrealistically small in Buck's large arms.

And fuck. It is a very cute sight.

Absolutely not, he tells himself determinedly, even if his heart beats slightly faster at the devastating sight of Buck coo-ing at the kitten.

It's a scruffy little thing. Fur sticking out ridiculously everywhere, tiny paws and big pitiful eyes staring right into his soul imploringly as if it was coached by both his boyfriend and his son to do its best to wear Eddie's defenses down.

And dammit; it's working.

Buck meets his eyes and has his own best puppy eyes weaponized.

Eddie sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Chris whoops loudly exactly like Buck and Eddie mourns the fact that their son is already learning Buck's frat boy ways. He makes a mental note to hide all the baseball caps in the house.

A tiny questioning mew joins their whooping.

The Ap-paw-intment

The first thing that Eddie does the next morning is to call the closest vet they could find to fix an appointment for the kitten. The girl on the other end of the line is cheery and polite and tells him they have a slot open at 4pm today. Eddie agrees easily and she asks for the name of the ‘pawrent’ for the appointment. “Eddie Diaz. And Evan Buckley”. “And your fur baby’s name?”, she asks innocently. Eddie wishes for all the strength and patience in the world as he looks at Buck who has his lips pursed, trying his best to pretend he's not laughing. “Baby Eddie”, he finally grits out. The girl, bless her heart, only goes quiet for a few seconds before thanking him and tells him they're excited to see them later. He hangs up, mortified. Buck finally laughs gleefully. “Oh the look on your face!” He puts the phone on the kitchen counter and scowls at his boyfriend. “Shut up, Buck. I can't believe you named the stupid kitten that”. “Hey!”, his boyfriend, who has the kitten on the table, gently folds its ears down, “don’t call Baby Eddie the s-word. He's named after my boyfriend you know”. Eddie glares at him, “a boyfriend who is re-thinking the decision of dating you currently”. Buck grins at him, unrepentant. “It was just a funny idea me and Chris had. He looked so excited about it and I couldn't say no”. Eddie just shakes his head knowing he's going to regret asking but he does anyway. “Why is that even a funny name?”. Buck gently lifts up the kitten to show Eddie like he couldn't already see from where he's making breakfast for them. “Because look at him! He looks just like you. Has the scowl and big cow eyes and everything!” Eddie scowls harder at him and Buck laughs so hard he nearly falls off the chair.

A fur-tunate coincidence

Baby Eddie settles down easily in the Diaz household (soon to be the Diaz-Buckley household but Eddie-the human one- is currently still working on it). The vet's appointment had gone well which didn't come as a surprise because apparently Buck and Chris had picked up the kitten from a shelter. A fact that only came to light after Eddie had agreed to house the scruff-ball. Eddie had done his best not to seem embarrassed everytime the vet said Baby Eddie while talking about the kitten. Even when Buck had gleefully told the vet assistant that the kitten is named after its other dad and pointed at him. They also find out that Baby Eddie is a girl. Turns out Buck and Chris had missed that part when they picked up the kitten. They refused to change her name despite Eddie's very convincing arguments though. She is now officially Baby Eddie Buckley-Diaz. Later that night, Buck had plastered himself on Eddie's back and mumbled, “I was only actually fostering her, you know. I didn't mean to make you an involuntary cat dad”. Eddie turns around in his arms. Buck has that look on his face, the one he has when he thinks he's done something wrong. “I'm not mad Buck”, he says softly. “I've been planning to either adopt a dog or a cat anyways for Chris' next birthday. It just happened a little early”. Buck's eyes light up, “really?”. “Really”, Eddie assures him and kisses him gently just to be sure. “I'm going to be a hands-off parent though. And I still don't like her. And she looks nothing like me”. Eddie tucks his face into Buck's neck, hiding his smile, feeling the thrum of Buck's laughter against his cheek.

A meow-ment of weakness

Buck has searched through all the drawers, the clothes hamper and the washing machine but his favorite blue hoodie is still nowhere to be seen. Frustrated, he heads to the kitchen to ask Eddie if he's seen it anywhere and stops at the entrance. Eddie is sitting by the kitchen table, doing something on his laptop, headphones on. He's wearing Buck's hoodie, sleeves pushed up to showcase his delectable arms. That's not what makes Buck stop and stare though. It's the fact that Eddie is wearing Buck's hoodie the wrong way around because he has Baby Eddie snuggled up in the hood of it. Baby Eddie has her head out, staring at the screen in fascination. As Buck watches on, Eddie pets Baby Eddie’s head softly with a finger and kisses her tiny scruffy head before going back to what he was doing. It's absolutely adorable and Buck thinks he falls even more in love with Eddie than he already has (he's going to put a ring on it soon, he's working on it). He takes at least 10 photos as proof and then calls Chris as an eyewitness just in case before confronting Eddie about the stolen hoodie and about him claiming he would be a hands-off parent just a few nights ago. When Eddie refuses to plead guilty to the charges, claiming he didn't realize it was Buck's hoodie and that it was just a moment of weakness because Baby Eddie looked lonely since neither Buck nor Chris were looking after her, Buck sends one of the photos to the group chat, grabs Chris and runs for his life as Eddie yells out “Buck!” when he checks his phone as his notifications go off.

Playing fur-vourites

To the disappointment of everyone involved, Baby Eddie has decided that human Eddie is her favorite human amongst them all. She follows him around like a shadow everywhere he goes, purrs up a storm whenever he comes back home from work, and snuggles up and falls asleep on him anytime he sits somewhere. Chris does get slightly annoyed at the development. “I give her extra treats but she still likes you more. That's unfair dad!”, he complains, as only a pre-teen could. Eddie feels bad for his son. He's not sure why the kitten has taken such a liking to him either. He'd rather she get attached to Chris or Buck instead. “Well, is it a surprise though kiddo? Your dad's really great. I mean, he's your favorite and mine too. So, it's not really surprising Baby Eddie likes him too right?” Buck attempts to placate him. Chris grumbles a little bit more but seems happy enough with the explanation. Of course, the fact that Baby Eddie chose that exact moment to butt her head against his ankle to get his attention might have helped as well. As Chris sits down on the floor to play with her, Eddie mouths ‘thank you’ at Buck, feeling warm. Buck simply winks at him, his stupid adorable boyfriend.

Pawrents, Interrupted

“This is all your fault”, Eddie accuses- unjustly if you ask Buck- when Baby Eddie climbs up Eddie's thighs to curl up on his chest. They had been busy making out on the couch as Chris was away at Pepa's for the night. Buck is already shirtless, hair a mess from Eddie running his hands through them, lips kiss-bruised. Buck looks at his boyfriend - pants unbuttoned, a hickey already blooming under his jaw and lips kiss-bruised just like his own- and snorts at him before smirking deviously, “to be fair, you do have very nice tits”. The pillow smack to his face was totally worth it if you ask Buck. (He does however, banish Baby Eddie into Chris' room, where her bed is, temporarily, while he apologizes to his boyfriend for his remark, very profusely and thoroughly in ways not suitable for a young and impressionable kitten's eyes to see. Baby Eddie might not have ended the night very happily but human Eddie very much did.)

Imagine Baby Eddie to look something like this lil one here:

READ ON AO3!

[kari-go]

"rip Luka, you would've kissed all of Juleka's friends" Luka too? Why him?

Well, I honestly kept forgetting about him. The most interesting thing about him was that he was Marinette's boyfriend and he kisses Stephan that one time (maybe even Chris if I was feeling funny lol).

There was an interesting contrast between Lukanette and Steluka. Might as well put it here xd

The thing with Luka was, he and Stephan got close (cuz of Juleka) but their relationship turned really one-sided. The relationship focused a lot on Stephan's needs and thoughts than Luka's. Luka was always there when Stephan needed help and advice but Stephan really wasn't there when Luka needed him (not that Stephan would really help or that Luka would ask in the first place, but it's the thought and support that counts). Luka never really got vulnerable with Stephan, partially because he knew that Stephan isn't doing that good mentally/emotionally.

And on the other side there was Marinette, who did really appreciate Luka and dammit their relationship was just so adorable I'm gonna miss them .

But then I realized that Luka could be replaced with Chris and Juleka pretty easily. Chris could be here for the kissing (as Lion instead tho), which could make Stephan's denial more apparent because he would then get angry at Plagg but I'm getting off track. Anyway, Chris can be the therapy friend, Juleka can have more stuff with music (thought that did kinda mess with my plans for her akuma a little) and that's really it, I don't think he had much else going on. I was thinking about giving him a miraculous but with how much I changed about the Christmas team (if it even happens lol), I was never really sure about it.

The biggest lost was basically Lukanette and Steluka stuff.

[cimacally]

💅 honestly rating dps ships cause I should be sleeping very much rn 🫦

Anderperry - 10/10. Do I even have to elaborate. It's almost CANON, there's CHEMISTRY ARHGRHSJ. MY MENTALLY UNWELL SHAYLAAASS.

Knarlie - 2/10. Don't come for me, I just don't like Knox and Charlie deserves better. Like, Knox's not a bad person (he kinda is cause wtf he did to Chris) but ehhhh.

Mittsie - 9/10. HEIGHT DIFFERENCE, LOOKS DIFFERENCE, INTERESTS SIMILARITY!! I looove this ship both as a couple and as best friends :DD

Chameron - 9.5/10. Not 10 cause idk why, I don't want this to be too bland lmao. OKAY SO. ENEMIES/RIVALS TO LOVERS + ROOMMATES TROPE. AND THEY'RE BOTH SO SIMILAR BUT SO SO DIFFERENT. AND IT'S SO ANGSTY BUT CAN BE SO CUTEEE

Charlie x Meeks (Cheeks?) - 6/10. I am NOT a multishipper I'm sorry 😭. But they're still adorable and healthier than Chameron... but Mittsie is too fitting and I love chameron w all my heart. But bonus points for cuteness and "Meeks. Doors. Close." "Yessir." Part

Charlie x Todd (Dalterson?) - normally 2/10 post-canon 7/10. Idk guys, after Neil neiled himself I think they'd comfort eachother but I don't rlly think it'd be an honest, pure love. I think they'd both cling to each other to not forget about Neil. If they'd end up as a couple, I think it would work out but... they wouldn't forget about their first loves. And they'd both know it.

Charlie x Neil (Cherry?) - normally 5/10 pre-canon 6/10. I LOVE them as besties but romantically idk. I can't see them as a couple. Maybe experimentally but nahhhh. Best friends forever!!

Cameron x Meeks (no idea) - 3/10. 3 points for nerds in love trope.

Cameron x Stick (idk either) - 4/10. Y'all I'm starting to think it's biased cause I have 3 main ships and can't ship the ppl with anyone else. Anyways, I lowkey can see it but still can't (?)

Chrisginny - 8/10. LEBANESE ICONS. Not 10 cause too little screen time so we can't really see it 😭😭. BUT I STILL LOVE ITTT. CHERRIES & CHOCOLATE SHIP 😖

Chox (Chris x Knox) - listen bitch you can't stalk

Chox2 (Chet x Knox) - FR 7/10. IT'S KINDA A CRACK SHIP OR IS IT??? I LITERALLY CAN SEE IT. PLEASE.

Keating x McAllister (dunno) - 6/10. WOULD GIVE MORE BUT KEATING HAS A GIRLFRIEND IN LONDON AND IT FEELS SO UNFAIR TO HER >:(. But def need it pre-canon!

Charginny - 4/10. I CAN see it but I don't rlly like it. Cute and even not-too-out-of-pocket but. Nah. Not for me. Still cute tho.

I don't think I know more cause does anyone ships smth like Neil x Pitts or Cameron x Chet lmao. Tell me if I forgot abt something.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Changing Seasons

A brief interlude of sorts before we get into the next big plot section! Sprinkles of some things here and there, thank you to @gigi-the-bear for the watering can :)

also! thank you so so so much to @shiphappen-s!!! you're an icon and i adore you

anyways let's watch ethan realize with horror that he's still crushing on chris >:)

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none

Pairings: winterfield (we're getting there)

Word Count: 4170

It takes a period of readjustment for Ethan to get used to the whole, y'know, having-a-body thing. Rose is more than happy to help.

It's not a cell, Chris had said gruffly when he brought Ethan to this tiny room, it's yours. You can—you know, decorate it and all that. If you want to.

Ethan had known that Chris isn't the most emotionally available of people, but having him shuffle awkwardly in the door sounding like an RA explaining the concept of a dorm room was just this side of borderline hysterical. He'd thanked Chris and asked about the bathroom, the laundry, all the normal things he'd ask if he was staying at someone's house, and when Chris had left, it had taken approximately three minutes for Rose to text him saying that yes, she knows the rooms here are bare as hell and yes, she was figuring out a way to drag him out to go shopping.

"I don't think you and I have the same going-off-base permissions, sweetie," he'd tried to say, but Rose had glared at him.

"I didn't have them either until Chris yelled at people. He'll yell at them some more."

No, he won't, Ethan had tried to say, but he'd just smiled and let Rose pepper him with questions about what he wanted his room to look like. Apparently there were things he hadn't even considered when it came to interior design—he'd never really had someone ask him what his color palette was before, aside from at his wedding, but that wasn't something he wanted to think about. Not after his conversation with Mia.

God, Mia…he loves her, he knows he'll always love her, but things were…he's not sure he'll ever be able to reconcile the two halves of Mia he thought he'd known. One of them had never been real, not entirely. He'd been part of her fantasy, hadn't he? That dream of a white picket fence, happy marriage, he'd been part of that. An accessory at worst, a willful fool at best. And learning the truth, diving into this world of bioterrorism and wretched creatures headfirst, just for the chance at having some of that back, then having something, anything, it was a rude awakening.

And, you know, dying. That'll put a damper on anything.

"You're drifting off again."

"Sorry, sweetie."

Rose huffs and leans against his side. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and holds her close. He can't say he's upset at how cuddly his daughter is, not when Chris had muttered something about Rose not having a lot of physical affection. Plus, he's missed out on sixteen years of cuddles. He's gotta start making up for those somehow.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Just…wondering how my life got here."

She shifts, putting her chin on his shoulder. "Yeah. I get that. Are you…do you regret any of it?"

Wow. Going hard with the big questions. "I don't know, Rosie. I'm…I wouldn't give you up for anything, you know that, right?"

"I know, Dad."

"And that's—that's kinda it for me." It's not, and they both know it, but Ethan will not make his daughter deal with his bullshit if she doesn't have to. She's his kid. That's not her job. "That's what's most important to me."

Rose squirms, wrapping her arms around his waist. The two of them sit there for a while, just enjoying each other's presences. Then she snorts.

"What?"

"I just—sorry, it's stupid."

"I love stupid."

"I was thinking about how we're gonna decorate your room and how mushrooms are like, everywhere right now?"

"They are?"

"Yeah. It's like a—it's just a thing right now."

"Is it anything like that weird mustache thing that happened years ago?"

"A what? What weird mustache thing?"

"I don't even really know what it was, it was just—they were everywhere. Like the stereotypical mustache was on T-shirts and coffee mugs and keychains…it was bizarre."

"Wait—" Rose sits up— "like, just a mustache? Like the—oh, God, what's an old thing with a mustache—"

"Hey!" He shoves her lightly. "Who're you calling old?"

"You, you old man! Was it like—the Monopoly guy's mustache?"

"I can't tell whether I'm more upset or relieved that Monopoly was your go-to 'old' thing."

"Okay, Monopoly's not, like, that old but it's an old board game and almost no one plays the classic one anymore. There's so many of them now."

"How many of them are there now? It's gotta be in the thousands."

"Easily. But was I right? Is it that sort of mustache?"

"Basically." He shakes his head, holds his arm back out for her to nestle against his side. "But I interrupted you. Mushrooms?"

Rose settles back against him, her hand gripping the edge of his shirt. She probably doesn't realize she's doing it, but the feeling warms his chest all the same. "Yeah. And I thought it'd be funny if your stuff was all mushroom-themed."

Ethan chuckles. "I think we'd give Chris a heart attack."

She snorts. "Imagine his face."

"Does he still do that thing where he's trying to be sincere—"

"—and he just looks really constipated?"

It's Ethan's turn to snort, turning his face to cover his mouth as Rose cackles freely next to him. "Maybe one mushroom thing, then. Just for fun."

"You're gonna need, like, boring stuff too. Like clothes and sheets and stuff. Wait—" and suddenly she sits bolt upright, turning to face him— "what about a computer and that sort of thing? Chris was only able to get them to give me a laptop is 'cause my teachers said I'd need it for school—"

"Hey, hey, sweetie, settle down," he soothes, quickly bringing her back into his arms—God, he's never taking getting to hold his daughter for granted again— "we'll figure that out when we get there, okay? It's okay, calm down, I don't need a computer right now anyway."

"But then what're you gonna do? Just stare at the wall all day?"

She makes a good point. But he's got a sneaking suspicion that the BSAA is going to be way less inclined to do him any favors versus Rose.

A problem for another day.

"Maybe I'll start reading again. Had a few books on my list that I never got to check out."

"Like what?"

They talk about books for a while. It's nice. It's really nice. It almost feels like they haven't missed sixteen years in the worst way possible. They're just a father and daughter, sitting on his bed, talking about books.

He could get used to this.

***

Rose has a shit-eating grin on her face as she holds out the bag. It's the only thing that's been vaguely gift-wrapped. Ethan takes it, warily glancing at Chris over her shoulder. Chris offers the most exasperated I-Have-No-Idea shrug he's ever seen and well, looks like he's on his own.

He gives her a narrowed-eye look as he carries it over to his desk—they did give him a desk, a notebook, and some actual books, to his surprise, and Chris had mumbled something about getting him a laptop too. He peers through the tissue paper and muffles a snort.

"Okay, so you clearly understand why this is funny." Chris looks between him and a now cackling Rose as Ethan pinches the bridge of his nose. He quickly schools his expression into something approximating neutral.

"How much do you know about taking care of plants, Chris?"

"Uh—not that much."

Rose quickly catches on and makes herself stop laughing. "You know, how it's important to make sure they have enough sunlight? Nutrition?"

"Water?"

Chris looks back at him with a deadpan expression. Without breaking his gaze, Ethan slowly lifts the watering can from the bag, turning it so Chris can see the cartoony mushroom on one side. Chris's eyes dart to it.

He snorts.

He tries to cover it up with a cough but Rose calls out a triumphant ha! and swats his shoulder. And then, well, then Ethan can't stop himself from laughing at it too, proudly putting the watering can on one corner of his desk and holding out his arms to Rose. She lets him hug her, still giggling, as Chris shakes his head.

"I gotta water my dad, Chris."

"I was considering asking for a humidifier in here. It's really dry."

Chris is about to say something when there's another voice from down the hall. He turns and Leon appears next to him. "What're you laughing at?"

"Those two." Chris waves at them.

"Oh? What's the joke?" Rose, still giggling, picks up the watering can to show him. Leon looks at it for about two seconds before he's nodding sagely. "Nice new decor, Winters. Always thought you were a real fungi."

Ethan's grin widens. Rose groans and Chris just glares at Leon like he's done the worst thing in the world. "I was thinking of asking for a humidifier too."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, but it's gonna have to be a small one. You know, considering there's not mushroom in here."

"Oh my God, shut up," Rose grumbles. "That was bad."

"C'mon, sweetie, don't be a spore loser." He chuckles when she punches his shoulder.

"Chris, make them stop."

"Rose, I'm gonna tell you this and you need to understand that it's the goddamn truth, okay?" Chris folds his arms. "I've seen a lot of impressive things done over the years, but nothing in this world or the next one is gonna be able to stop Leon from making stupid jokes. Nothing."

"You're making it sound like you don't appreciate my sense of humor, Redfield."

"Yeah, it really sounds like he wants you to button up." That one gets him blank looks. "The early part of a mushroom's life cycle is called a button."

"Dad!" Rose groans as Leon's eyes gleam.

"You and I are gonna be really good friends, Ethan."

"No cap?"

"No, no, no." Rose claps her hands over her ears. "You can't make a shitty mushroom pun out of not using slang correctly, stop it."

"I've missed out on sixteen years of embarrassing you, sweetie, I gotta start making up for that somehow."

Rose scowls at him without any real heat and makes a grab for the watering can. Ethan snatches her up around the waist, laughing as she squeals in surprise. It quickly turns into squeaky fits of laughter as he peppers kisses all over her face until she's batting weakly at him to make him stop.

"This is my fault for getting you the watering can, isn't it?"

He presses one last smacking kiss to her forehead. "Yep. Totally is, sweetie."

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Chris relax a little as he and Leon watch them. Leon leans over and mutters something too quiet for him to hear, but Chris huffs and turns away—wait.

Wait.

There's no way that Chris Redfield is blushing right now, right?

But no sooner does he turn to look, Chris is already blustering something about training or going somewhere and hustling them down the hall and Ethan barely has time to glance at Leon, who just claps him on the shoulder and starts talking with Rose about…something.

It lingers in his head for the rest of the day. Chris couldn't have been blushing. Not only does that completely go against everything he knows about Chris Redfield, but why would Chris be blushing? Leon doesn't strike him as the type of person to say something crude or crass just to get a reaction out of someone, and Chris doesn't seem like the type of person to get flustered by that sort of thing anyway. Maybe it was something embarrassing Chris did? But then why remind him of it right then?

He shakes his head, resolving to not think about Chris Redfield blushing anymore. It probably didn't happen anyway.

It also is probably completely unrelated to the small humidifier that turns up outside his door a few days later. The one that fits right on the edge of his desk next to the watering can.

He feels Eveline shift slightly under his skin and it feel suspiciously like she's rolling her eyes at him.

***

Ethan tries not to pay attention to the files he can see over the doctors' shoulders when they run their tests on him, but sometimes he can't help it. Especially when said doctors are doing a really bad job of whispering about his similarities to someone they're only referring to as W.

Which, really, isn't all that clever. He can tell it's short for someone's name. Part of him wants to tell them that they need to pick another letter because his last name begins with a 'w' too, but that would probably just make them clam up and insist on running more tests. And with his laptop still under heavy negotiation, frankly, he's bored. He's not gonna blow his chances of learning something interesting.

He manages to sneak one decent glance at a screen as he's walked back to his room. There are two files open on the monitor, one with his face, one with another that looks…vaguely familiar. His eyes dart to the name at the top.

Albert Wesker.

He's pushed out of the door before he can see anymore—or let them know that he did see it—but the name rings a bell somewhere. He's pretty sure he's heard Chris mention the name once or twice, and it came up in some of the reports he'd managed to glimpse before Romania, but something…something else.

When he's in his room, he feels Eveline shift like she's trying to show him something. He closes his eyes, lying back on his bed, and feels her start to nudge different memories toward the forefront of his brain. He's back in the village, moving through the barren, snow-covered ground, across that cold bridge to Heisenberg's factory. He can't help the slight swoop in his gut as the images flash past, hands clenching and missing fingers throbbing with phantom pain. Eveline pauses, unsure, but he pushes onwards.

He settles on the memory of that giant wall with all the photos on it. His heart clenches at seeing the Lords again, Mother Miranda, God, even that picture of Mia with Rose…

Focus, he can almost hear Eveline hiss.

He feels his gaze drawn up to a corner, past a picture of Chris's face—had he even noticed that the first time around? Heisenberg had called Chris a boulder-punching asshole, so clearly he sort of knew him, but why was he there? He keeps going, looking at the photos connected to Chris, until he lands on a photo of a man with sunglasses.

His eyes fly open.

It had been a different photo, to be sure, taken way after the other one, but the same man.

Who was he? Someone related to Chris, obviously, though probably not family—then again, he hadn't even known Chris had a sister until recently, and no, they were very much not done with that conversation. If the doctors had his file…a bioweapon, then.

Eveline shifts again and this time he can feel her hesitance. He tries to reach back, reassure her somehow. This time the memory is far more visceral; Ethan winces when he catches sight of a giant Eveline looming over him in the sunlight of Louisiana. It's blurred with Eveline's memory of it too, of seeing him there on the ground, of being riddled with pain—this time it's his turn to get them to focus, we're not there, we're not there, it's over, it's okay.

His—their?—gaze lands on the weapon.

The Albert, he remembers someone calling it and—oh.

Oh, this was complicated complicated.

He figures that probably means it's a good idea not to try to talk to Chris about this right now, and definitely not to tell him about that picture on Heisenberg's wall.

At least not yet.

***

He's wrenched out of a deep sleep with the feeling that something is wrong. He sits up, scrabbling at his chest with blunt fingertips, trying to figure out what's going on, closing his eyes tight to try and see—

Oh. Oh, his baby's crying.

He squeezes his eyes shut and pushes, trying to focus on finding Rose in the network, letting her know that he's here, he's right here, he's gonna take care of her, and he can feel the responding twinge from her that she can see his words. Her voice sounds as it always does like this, as though she's speaking through bubbles.

"Dad?"

hi sweetie, are you okay?

Instead of replying, she fumbles for something and a few seconds later, his phone rings. He scrabbles for it.

"Hey, Rose? Rose, sweetie, what's going on? Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?"

She sniffles—oh, his poor baby—and he can hear fabric rustling. "Y-yeah."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. It's over now, you're okay. Everything's okay."

"I—I miss you."

His chest aches and he's up and out of bed in a second, going to the door before remembering that it's locked, they won't let him out without an escort, and he's overwhelmed with a wave of uselessness. The world narrows down to the cold metal under his hand and the sound of his daughter sobbing through the phone. "I'm right here, Rosie, I'm right—I'm here, okay? I can't—I can't come to you—I can't get out but I'm here, okay? I'm right here."

"C-can I—" she sobs— "can I come to you? Please?"

"Yes, yeah, of course you can, sweetie, come—come here—c'mere, I'll—how do you get to me?"

"Ask—ask the—is there still a guard outside your door?"

Yes, as a matter of fact, there was. A guard that was currently asking if he was alright. He thinks he manages something about Rose having a nightmare, wanting to come see him, please, let me see my daughter, and too many minutes later there's a muffled sob on the other side and he's going to break this door down if it means getting Rose in his arms—

The door flies open and there's a bundle of fabric and blonde hair throwing itself at his chest and he wraps his arms tightly around his baby girl and pulls her close, stumbling back to sit on his bed, his mouth pressed to her ear as he shushes her and rocks her back and forth.

"I've got you now, sweetie, I'm right here, see? You got me, I've got you, you're safe. No monsters can get you. I'm gonna protect you. I'll keep you safe."

Rose just sniffles and buries her head in the crook of his neck. He runs his hand through her hair, scratching the back of her scalp, kissing her temple. He pulls her into his lap and the two of them just breathe each other in for long moments. Eventually, she sags into his grip and wraps her arms around him too.

"Hey, Rosie," he mumbles, "you feel a little better?"

"Mhm." She sniffles. "I really, really missed you."

"I missed you too, sweetie."

"I wish—I wish we didn't have to do all of this."

"All of what?" Rose just flaps a hand at the door—ah. Right. The door that's still open with the guard looking in on them with a worried look. "Oh."

"You got Jack, though. He's nice."

"Yeah. Jack's nice." One of the few guards that actually seems to treat Ethan like a person. Like he doesn't agree that Ethan's basically locked in like a test mouse. "Thanks, Jack."

"I'm not gonna keep a kid from her dad," Jack says, smiling as Rose's little pink nose peeks out over the crook of Ethan's arm. "Are you guys alright?"

"Better now."

"Better now," Ethan agrees. "Are…can Rose stay here?"

Jack sighs. "I have to let the captain know that she's here, but I'm pretty sure he'll be fine with it."

Rose curls up a little more as Ethan starts moving them toward the middle of the bed, fussing with the covers until she's tucked in up to her chin with his arms around her. He can hear Jack talking quietly with Chris on the phone, glancing at them every so often until he's laughing at something.

"No, Captain, you don't need to come, they're alright." He raises his eyebrows. "You wanna talk to them yourself?"

Without waiting for a response, he walks over and holds out the phone. Ethan takes it, holding it close so Rose can hear too. "Chris?"

"Ethan." He can almost hear Chris sagging in relief. "Are you both okay? Is Rose alright?"

"She's okay. Just a nightmare."

"'M fine, Chris," Rose mumbles, snuggling into Ethan's side, "I'm okay now."

"Okay. Good. That's…that's good." There's the soft rustle of fabric over the phone. "Are…you should stay with Ethan tonight."

"Can I?"

"Shit, Rose, yeah, stay with your dad after you've had a nightmare. That's fine."

Rose slumps against him in relief and Ethan can't help but do that same. "Thanks, Chris."

Chris grumbles something that he can't quite make out before he's wishing them a good night's rest and asking him to hand the phone back to Jack. He tells Chris to sleep well too, handing the phone back to Jack, who winks and closes the door.

"Do you think you can go back to sleep?"

Rose shuffles. "Maybe."

"You wanna cuddle with me anyway?"

Rose doesn't reply—teenagers don't typically like to admit that they want to cuddle with their dads—but she snuggles right up to him anyway and he grins, kissing her forehead. "Dad?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"You're not gonna leave again, are you?"

Oh, his poor baby…

He shifts so he can take Rose's face in his hands, leaning down so he can kiss her cheek properly. "No, sweetie. I'm not going anywhere."

He thinks, as Rose finally starts to drift back to sleep, that he might've just threatened the universe.

Oh, well. It should know better by now.

***

He honestly thought he was over it.

He thought he'd burned and salted the earth. He thought he'd razed it so nothing could ever grow there again. He thought the world had done a pretty good job of beating it into his head that it was impossible, stupid, hopeless.

But then they were outside in one of those small courtyard things one afternoon. They'd been talking about nothing, not really, and Leon and Rose had started talking about this movie they'd seen. Something about assassins and dogs. Then onto something about tropes and story structure and character arcs, and then Leon had mentioned it.

Something called 'fridging.'

"Wait, what? What's that?"

"You know, how a male character's wife is always killed or something to further his man-pain story?" Rose had flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Sometimes it's his sister or his mother or something like that?"

"Basically the character dies for no other reason than to further the male character's storyline," Leon had added, "like…oh, God, like every action movie ever."

"It happens a lot in superhero movies? Or in, like, certain types of TV shows?"

"Give me an example."

"Uh…did you ever watch that old show about the drug lords?"

All three of them had groaned. "That show isn't old, Rose," Chris had said.

"It came out, like, more than ten years ago, that's old."

Leon had winced. "Yeah, though, uh, Jane in Breaking Bad, that's an example."

"Or like—most superhero movies? When the female character makes this, like, big sacrifice that's supposedly an arc for her but really it's just to get her out of the way so that the male characters can feel bad about it?"

"Huh." Ethan had stared at the ground for a few seconds. "Did I get fridged?"

Silence.

"…what?"

"If our lives were a movie or whatever, did I—did I die to fuel Chris's man pain?"

Now, in the grand scheme of things, was this an appropriate thing to say? No, probably not. Was it kind of insensitive? Probably more than kind of. Did it make any sense once he said it out loud? Only a tiny bit.

But Chris had burst out laughing.

Fully bent over, gasping for air, tears in his eyes, laughing so hard it echoed off the buildings around them. Then Rose had started laughing too. Then Leon. Then all four of them were struggling to breathe as Ethan kept going— "you really had your own story line and everything! I broke your nose once and then practically died in your arms—"

"Stop," Chris wheezes, "stop, Ethan, you're gonna kill me."

"I don't think there's a fridge big enough for you, buddy."

And he's off again, head thrown back, and—and—

And Ethan can't help but stare.

Because Chris looks years younger. Sure, there are still wrinkles where there didn't use to be, but they're laugh lines. And his cheeks are bright red from exertion and he's grinning at Ethan like he still can't believe he can laugh this hard, and then it's softening slightly but he's still smiling like he's glad Ethan isn't dead, like he's glad he's back, like he's…he's…

He thought it was over.

He comes to the screeching conclusion that it isn't.

[fanficshiddles]

The Redbridge Hunts, Chapter 14

Claire was so excited when she arrived at Loki’s place, though she was a little bit nervous too. She felt like it was a date, since they had shared a kiss last night… She also hoped that something more would maybe happen too.

She was getting so frustrated having just her own hands to deal with her needs at nights, while thinking of Loki. It didn’t help that she had to see him every day, for hours on end, watching him teach his class and be so in charge… her thoughts were beginning to run away with her again so she shook her head and pushed them to the back of her mind as she walked up to his door and rang the bell.

Loki opened the door before the bell had even stopped ringing, he had the biggest smile on his face. His heart also skipped a beat as he took in her appearance, she was wearing a dark green dress with tights since it was cold, with a jacket thrown over. She’d also curled her hair which hung nicely down over her shoulders. He had to resist the urge to just take her upstairs to his bed…

‘Come on in. You look beautiful, darling.’ He commented when she stepped inside and he took off her jacket for her.

‘So do you… I mean, uh, handsome. You look handsome.’ She said quickly, her cheeks turned red.

‘I’ll take beautiful too.’ Loki chuckled and winked at her.

He was wearing suit trousers with a light blue shirt, his sleeves were rolled up his forearms, that Claire tried not to focus too much on.

‘I brought some wine.’ Claire held up a bottle of red.

‘Perfect. My favourite.’ Loki grinned and kissed her cheek, making her blush.

Loki led her through to the living room, as soon as she walked in, Bat came running over to her from the window while making a chirping noise.

‘Bat! Hey!’ Claire cooed in delight as she crouched down to stroke her.

‘I told her you were coming over, she’s been sitting on the window-ledge all afternoon.’ Loki chuckled.

‘Aww, you’re just the cutest.’ She scooped Bat up into her arms and stood up straight, Bat started rubbing her head against Claire’s cheek while purring.

‘Will I just leave the two of you alone tonight?’ Loki teased and poked Claire in the side playfully, making her laugh.

‘Getting jealous?’ Claire smirked at him.

‘Very.’ Loki winked at her.

Loki poured them both a drink of wine and they sat down on the sofa together, Bat instantly made herself comfortable on Claire’s lap.

‘Apologies for the cat hair that will get on your dress.’ Loki chuckled.

‘Ah don’t worry, cat hair makes everything look better.’ Claire laughed.

Loki draped his arm around the back of the sofa behind her while they chatted before dinner. He couldn’t resist stroking her shoulder every now and then, he just desperately wanted to touch her. Her scent still drove him crazy, even though he could control himself.

‘Excuse me while I check on dinner, it shouldn’t be much longer now anyway.’ Loki headed through to the kitchen while Claire stayed with Bat and sipped her wine.

She decided to take a look at his book case, she was intrigued to see what kind of books he liked. As she wandered over and was looking at the book titles, she noticed slightly hidden at the back was a photo album. Curiosity got the better of her, so she pulled it out and opened it up to look through.

‘Don’t tell your dad.’ She said to Bat, who was peeking at her from over the back of the sofa.

Her heart melted as she flicked through the pages, there was plenty of old photos from when Loki was younger. What surprised her though, was how Chris was in a lot of them too, but he seemed exactly the same as he was now. Did he never age? What was his secret?

Though she also noticed that Loki seemed close with Chris when he had been a child. Loki looked to be clinging to him a lot as a toddler, even when Loki looked to be in his teen years, he was next to Chris or looking at him with adoration. Then the pictures just stopped after Loki’s teenage years.

‘Wonder what happened that made them grow so apart.’ Claire muttered to herself.

‘Dinner’s ready!’ Loki shouted through, making Claire jump.

She quickly put the album back where she found it, then grabbed her wine and headed through to join Loki in the kitchen.

‘Smells amazing.’ She said as she walked in and took a seat at the dining table.

‘I hope it tastes amazing too.’ Loki said as he put a plate down on front of her.

He’d made a sausage casserole with mashed potatoes, it was his speciality. He was delighted when Claire’s face lit up after her first bite.

‘Oh wow, this is so good!’ She said as she stuffed another forkful into her mouth.

Loki grinned in delight. ‘I’m glad you like it. I used to make this for my parents a lot, they loved it. Dad still does, I make it on special occasions.’

‘So, this is a special occasion?’ Claire asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Loki smiled widely and reached over to lightly stroke the back of her hand briefly. ‘I’d say a first date is a pretty special occasion… Wouldn’t you?’ He asked with an eyebrow raised, hoping he had said the right thing, he wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

‘Definitely.’ Claire said with the biggest smile.

After dinner, they went back through to the living room with another glass of wine and Loki put some background music on. Loki sat even closer to Claire this time, and Bat curled up at the end of the sofa next to her.

Loki found himself stroking her neck absentmindedly, now and then his fingers would still against her pulse, he could sense her lovely blood flowing through her veins. Oh how easy it would be to just… take a bite. She was tipsy now after all, he could just pass it off as an alcoholic dream.

He snapped himself out of it, he was NOT like that, he was not going to hurt her. He began playing with her hair instead of touching her neck, Claire felt like she had turned into putty just from his light touches. She especially liked it when he touched her neck.

It wasn’t long before they locked eyes and trailed off in their conversation, soon becoming distracted in one another. Loki gently slid his hand down to hold the side of her neck and leaned in to kiss her, she reciprocated with just as much eagerness as he had when their lips connected.

Claire’s hands wound up around his neck, she toyed with his hair at the back of his neck as their kiss deepened. Loki tested the waters a little as he slowly slid his tongue into her mouth, when she didn’t pull back he teased her tongue, tasting the wine they’d been drinking all night. Her scent completely enveloped him, making him kiss her more eagerly and the way she tugged on his hair certainly didn’t slow him down.

He could tell her heart was racing as he could feel her blood rushing through the veins in her neck, but he surprised himself with how much restraint he had as he was able to rein himself in a bit and calm his tongue down, back to a slow passionate kiss.

When they broke the kiss, they were both a bit flustered and Loki could definitely smell her arousal, even as she clenched her thighs together to try and calm herself down. Loki’s eyes had darkened a little, but thankfully she didn’t notice, and he managed to calm his own racing heart down by trying to think unsexy thoughts.

Her gentle hand landing on his thigh made it difficult not to focus on her though. He cleared his throat and picked up her hand, he kissed the back of it and each finger slowly in turn.

‘I really, really like you, Claire. And god, you have no idea how difficult it is for me right now to restrain myself… but my dad raised me better than this, I don’t want to rush, what we have.’ As he spoke, he turned her hand around and gave her wrist a lingering kiss that made her curl her toes. ‘I want to do this properly, darling.’

Claire’s face was flushed red and she struggled to get her brain to work properly as she tried to speak, but a big mumble of garbage spilled from her lips, making Loki chuckle as he gently released her hand.

‘I uhm… yeah, me too.’ Was all Claire could whisper once she got her brain to function again, which took a bit longer than she had thought it would, because Loki’s warm hand ended up cupping her cheek. He was really making it difficult for her to agree with him.

Loki just couldn’t stop himself from touching her in some way, he wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go.

‘You’re not making it easy to resist you, you know.’ She laughed shyly.

Loki chuckled sheepishly, though he still didn’t let go of her cheek, instead he began stroking it with the back of his hand. ‘I can’t help myself.’ He admitted.

Claire’s heart was still hammering in her chest, like it was about to burst out of her. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm her own hormones down.

A little meow tore them apart, Bat clambered across Claire’s lap and onto Loki’s, she then put her front paws up onto his chest and started batting at his chin.

‘She seems to be after something.’ Claire laughed.

Loki sighed. ‘Yes, it’s feeding time… Impeccable timing, Bat.’ He tucked her under his arm and grudgingly carried her through to the kitchen to feed her.

Claire was glad for the little break, just so she could get a proper breather. Part of her was a little disappointed that things weren’t going to go further between them tonight, but at the same time she felt really warmed that Loki didn’t want to rush them. That he thought so highly of her to want to respect her so much.

When he returned, they had another drink and managed to keep things from getting too heavy. Though they did sneak in one more kiss when Loki walked her home.

It was safe to say, they were both in desperate need of relief when they went to bed that night. Loki even took a bag of blood to bed with him for after he had relieved himself, but it tasted nothing like he knew Claire would, and his hand definitely wasn’t as effective as Claire would be.

How he was going to be control himself when they did get to that stage in their relationship, he had no idea. He was really scared he was going to lose control, that he would hurt and scare her.

When that was of course the last thing he wanted to do.

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Guysss. . . I'm gonna hate him :')) :D

I am going to hate him 😤😤 I already do 😌😤

But like guysss :))

The racism and homophobia guysss :DD

The angsttt 🥰🥰🥰👀😏

No but I will want to kill him xdd I'm just going to enjoy the angst 😌 <333

Anyway Tommy or Buck I think you should kiss him in front of him

Him being the other and other him being Gerrard

Anyway xD

GET HIM 😤😤😤😤

Hate that man 😌🥰🥰

But dang what an episode y'all lol

A great finale for sure :D

Without having to have a huge disaster or anything too which is a cool way of switching it up :))

I mean it was still disastrous but you know xD

Also just, something I said like 15 minutes afterwards (though it took me a second to place the scene I was/would be talking about being the one of Eddie and his parents I just said it lol): Buck was too busy getting railed by his boyfriend

Family meeting 😔😔😔💔❤️ Should Chris go to Texas? Sidenote Buck's not here he's busy getting railed by his boyfriend 😔😔✊

Anyway still reeling that Tommy said that lol. Like. What. Did I hallucinate that xD. Oh my gosh lol o.o

Though I have by now seen a clip (thank you 911 tag 🙏), as I was desperately searching for, but that's how I was feeling right after the episode lol

Anyway xD y'all I'm nervous o.o but I'm so excited for the next season :D

I loved that ending and I'm sure I'm gonna love that beginning, idk it was just so "ahh crap." to me xD. And "at least we have each other" :). Plus I LOVE rebellion plots and when there's a leader in charge that we hate that's basically what it is 😌😌😌😏. Not to mention a leader who hates them lol. Because, again, angst 😌😌

Anyway xD

That's the last of my last thoughts, so now it's time for the. . .

REVIEW

I LOOOVED this episode!! It was so good oh my gosh. And real quick, just:

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Y'all that was wild o.o

Anyway! I really enjoyed this episode. There were a bunch of cool moments and a TON of emotional moments my gosh :O 😭😭😭❤️💔❤️.

Okay, gonna head out for now!! See y'all in a bit (probably a few days lol) :D.

OKAY it's day of and I need to hurry sooo QUICK and I'll edit more later xdd.

Hen and Karen!! Y'all I'm still stressing for them but I hope we can figure it out soon and get that lady to back off 😭. They did great this episode, like Hen with her job and stuff (I'm sure Karen too)! I love them <3.

Buck (and Tommy)! Don't remember much about what happened, but I'm glad he was able to be there for Christopher :'). Also him and Tommy are adorable lol <33. He also did a great job :D 🥰 at his job of course. I love them <3.

Maddie and Chimney! Y'ALLLL not them fostering Mara like that 😭😭😭❤️❤️. I literally love them so much, they're the best <3. Obviously I hope she can go back to Hen and Karen soon, but for now, I'm just glad that she's in a good home with them close :')). They also did amazing with their jobs by the way <3.

Eddie (and Christopher)! Y'all 😭. I am not okay 😭😭💔. I will never be okay xd. I'm glad Chris is somewhere safe and doing what feels best for him but it just absolutely breaks my heart man xdd. I hope Eddie is okay as he can be (obviously he cannot be doing good right now but you know xd 😭) and just that this all gets sorted out soon :((. You did mess up though Eddie xd. Still, I love them 😭 <3. He did do great with his job though xd.

Bobby and Athena! I'm so glad they're okay 😭❤️🥰. But GOSH DANG IT I just wish Bobby had managed to get back in there in charge xd. I know I'm gonna love the angst of Gerrard being around but, as I said, I'm also gonna haaaate him xD. I'm gonna be fuming the whole time lol, any time he's around. It's a fun switch up, but I just hope it gets sorted out soon. Anyway, they were both icons and amazing as always with their jobs!! And I'm glad Bobby wants his back now xD. And I'm just glad that Amir (I think?) wasn't actually evil - it's good to see a character who doesn't like a main character but is still a good person. I appreciate that <3. Anyway, Athena was an icon as always and did a great job solving stuff <3. I love them <33.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode!! There were a bunch of sad and rough moments, but I love me some angst and drama lol. And there were also a lot of really great (not that sad bits aren't great) moments throughout the episode. We also got a fair spread (not too even, but we saw everybody at least a bit) for character focus this episode, which I liked, and tend to almost always appreciate :). I'm so excited to see what happens with everything!!

So, yeah! I loved this episode, I thought it was great. A bit stressful, but great nonetheless. I'm excited to see what happens next season!!

This has been my review of. . .

9-1-1, Season 7, Episode 10: All Fall Down

It was amazing!! I'm a bit nervous for how everything's gonna turn out next season, because there were a lot of cliffhangers, but I'm excited.

I'll be back next time for my review of. . .

9-1-1, Season 8, Episode 1!

See you then!

[ybklix]

𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐫 ♡ 𝐌𝐫𝐬. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 ₊⊹

CRY BABY ♡⊹ (( bang chan )) mdni ♡ part six ♡ FIC MASTERLIST ౨ৎ₊˚

Chapters:

11: pacify her ((word count: 6k))

12: mrs. potato head ((word count: 4.9k))

current warnings (chap. 12): smut, daddy kink, corruption kink, praise kink, use of sex toys (handcuffs, vibrator, crystal dildo), fingering, clitplay, analplay, cumplay, multiple orgasms, piv, creampie.

⋆˙⟡♡

ELEVEN: pacify her

someone told me stay away from things that aren't yours, but was he yours, if he wanted me so bad? ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

He felt… like his chest was being crushed, this crying, it was a different one, for some reason Chris felt it different, the speed of her tears, the depth of her sobs, he pulled her body closer to his chest and hugged her, she finally feeling his closeness after a long week, Chris stroked her hair, letting her cry for a moment.

He felt terrible that she wouldn't stop crying, he even pressed her face closer to his body, leaving small tears on his shirt, it was until she felt the vibration of his voice that she was able to calm down a little.

“It's okay, sweetheart, please talk to me, what's wrong, why are you crying like this?” spoke Chris softly, brushing his face gently into her hair.

Celeste between sobs, dared to look at him, looking up with her wet cheeks, swollen lips and red nose. She tried to calm down a little at the sight of him, but it was still too impossible to speak for her, she didn't know how to tell him that she would like to stop feeling used, quickly Chris gently took her from her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb; she still with a trembling voice said:

“It's just… I don't know what I did wrong for you to keep treating me like this, you won't even tell me what I should do to stop you treating me indifferent” she confessed with all the words slurred, it wasn't what she meant and she was blaming herself, which Chris noticed.

“Oh, sweetie, it's not you…”

“Then what is it… I just, I missed you” she watched him with bright eyes almost begging for forgiveness.

Chris didn't want to let go of her for a second, his left arm around her back and with his right one caressing and appreciating her wet, ruined face from crying.

“Okay, I'm sorry, I'll stop being so rough with you, can you forgive me this time?” added Chris, watching every part of her face closely.

She sobbed and sniffed loudly with her nose.

“It's okay” she murmured, moving her hands from his chest to reach out and embrace his complexion, clinging to him, “I just want… to be treated normal.”

Chris said nothing, he didn't know what to say but his thoughts were distracted once she attached her face to his body again, he hugged her tightly again, Chris couldn't bear to be away from her, once again, there was an unexplainable strength in him that just made him want to be with her, to control her and adore every little thing that made her herself. But he still had so much to know about her, like her unexpectedly sensitive side.

“Oh, my princess, it's okay, it's okay, but don't leave me like this” Chris whispered meaninglessly, enjoying her scent and closeness of her warm body that drove him crazy.

Finally parting, she reached for his lips again, which Chris kissed them slowly, he missed every inch of her organ and the soft, pleasurable sensation he adored, Chris knew she might not put up much with the idea of him being a rude dominant, but he had no problem with acting sweet to her, as long as she didn't piss him off…

After their reconciliation, she decided it wasn't important to bring up things from the past and would wait for Chris to change his attitude a bit, after all crying did work, it touched the deepest part of him, as he saw a sincere and heartfelt cry, he couldn't stand to see her like that. Chris took care of her, he offered her to sleep over at his place since the next day was the weekend anyway and they both slept, she was happier than ever, wearing one of his hoodies, being held in his arms, Chris usually had trouble falling asleep, especially when the time change abruptly affected him a little, but none of that was a problem once he met her, with her by his side, he slept so peacefully.

And he was back to treating her, as his priority, sweetly and tenderly, pampering her always and returning to being the sweet Chris he always wanted to be for her.

[…]

Another week passed, this time at least Chris didn't touch her sexually, only in a sweet way, plus she felt embarrassed, but she had to inform him that she got her period in case he wanted to try something and she felt completely uncomfortable in that state, the good news for her, was that she wasn't pregnant. Chris took too much care of her in every way he wanted and their only time apart was when he had to go to the gym, where Celeste didn't want to go with him. Their week was nice and she got exactly what she wanted, being treated normally, taking her to places, accompanying Chris shopping, accompanying him to buy whatever he needed, going to the movies, visiting old music places where Chris would teach her more of his musical tastes, just being by his side and feeling good about accompanying him in every little thing, being a part of each other's lives.

She couldn't exactly call him her boyfriend, but he treated her well, she would fall asleep in his arms and he would kiss her tenderly, on her lips, on her forehead, cheek or on the top her head, while he tells her how cute and sweet she is, she felt so good, she loved to be treated like that. And Chris had no problem with treating her that way, he loves to treat her sweetly like a princess and see how modest she was, trying not to be so spoiled.

And another week began, she was having a quiet breakfast with her brother, until he suddenly said something that left her thinking a bit:

“Have you seen dad? He was supposed to borrow me his car because… I'm going on a date,” Blake spoke but then quickly added, “I've called and texted him but he's not answering.”

Celeste was about to tease her brother about going on a date… but then suddenly the fact that she hadn't seen her father in weeks, ever since he fought with her outside the house and ended up crying, she hadn't heard from him and it wasn't like she cared too much either, but something inside her felt wrong due to the fact that she hadn't even thought about it.

“Do you think… they're finally getting divorced?” was all she could say.

Blake lifted his shoulders, “Maybe, maybe that's why mum went to her sister's house for a week.”

“And what about her…?” she questioned softly.

Her brother sighed, “There isn't any alcohol in the house but no doubt she'll be buying soon.”

She pouted with nothing more to say, she finished her breakfast, picking up her plate, brushing her teeth quickly and saying goodbye to her brother to head over to Chris, who she thought he looked particularly more attractive today, she didn't know what he had but she was liking him more and more. Her smile appeared on her face once she saw him, and she ran into his arms to hug and kiss him, a little routine she couldn't get enough of, and neither could he, just deep down he wished he always had her 24/7, staying at his house all the time, nothing would make him happier than waking up next to her always and kissing her until her lips were swollen before taking her to bed, dressing her and sleeping, cuddled up to her.

This time Chris received her passionately, kissing her hard and running his hands under her skirt and caressing her bottom, feeling her tiny short protector underneath.

Celeste hadn't called Chris daddy in a while, and she didn't feel the need because there was nothing sexual between them yet, though Chris missed it a little, her sweet quivering, squeaky voice screaming daddy over and over again… but he adored her so much, he saw how happy she was when he treated her sweetly, like he always wanted to treat her, but jealousy got the best of him that time, so far he hadn't seen her near Hyunjin, otherwise he might explode again, he couldn't stand the thought of her with someone else.

“Good morning princess” he greeted, between her lips.

She smiled at him, surprised to feel his big hands on her ass, for a small second missing the hands on her body touching her, but with affection, or at least that's how she liked to be treated now.

And they both headed to the university, where Chris's class was nothing more than more time for her to see him, almost completing the twenty-four hours being around him and she liked that.

That morning Hyunjin tried to approach her to talk to her, who she even with a bit of fear reflected in her eyes, turned away saying that she was really busy, feeling bad, she thought that she had fixed things with Chris but she was not sure if she could continue talking to him in a friendly way and that, she did not know why she had to have his permission, still Chris's opinion and everything around Chris mattered quite a lot to her and he had a very big influence on her, she couldn't deny it and no matter how much she wanted to stop it she couldn't, she was already too immersed in him and his world, she would do anything he asked just to make him happy and receive even his minimal affection and attention in return. She felt that life without him would be meaningless, somewhat extreme but she either felt everything or she felt nothing.

For some reason she was excited to practice with Chris, their practices were one of her favorite parts together as they would play for hours, talk and he would slide his hand up her thigh, feeling his warm skin every time she tried to concentrate on playing, which helped her in concentrating, either she would get lost in her playing or she would get lost in his touch, it was like a little adrenaline rush she liked. But as she walked towards the music room she got a message from him, so direct that it seemed strange to her.

I'll be a bit late

Just like that, without calling her by some sweet nickname like he usually does. She answered him,

How late? Am I still waiting for you in the music room?

And 10 minutes passed without an answer, and when they were at the university she couldn't call him, a rule he established, since her name was written all over the screen with a heart. Celeste sighed and slowly lost her patience, so without knowing exactly if she was looking for him, just to pass the time, she decided to go to his office, without the hope that he was there, since she thought it was most likely that he was in some faculty meeting, suddenly supervising a group of students or, that his other job has him held in his office because he had to work as well.

Celeste knocked softly on his door without even waiting for an answer because he was already pushing his way in. Her serious countenance lifted with joy at the sight of him, behind his desk standing, but she quickly noticed that he wasn't alone, a woman taller than her, almost Chris's height was accompanying him, her back was turned, she looked good, elegant, her back and butt were so well worked but without exaggeration, she had the perfect combination of feminine slim build with a bit of a worked athletic body and she smelled good, her smile was instantly wiped off as she picked up that they were talking animatedly, Chris with a huge smile on his face and it took him a few seconds to turn his gaze to Celeste.

“Ah, actually my student is waiting for me, I have to go” Chris advised with a smile.

She instantly turned around, seeing Celeste, who thought she was even more beautiful from in front of her, she couldn't help but feel bad for a second, over thinking ideas of what beautiful women can surround Chris all the time.

“Oh, she's your student” she mentioned with a slight smile, Celeste without the slightest idea that she also got the surprise of seeing a pretty young woman dressed in a tiny skirt but making her look so classy and tender at the same time, with her makeup and hair perfectly done, “Nice to meet you.”

“This is Aubrey, the new women's swim coach, this is Celeste, music major” Chris was quick to say.

Celeste just smiled at her, unable to speak after seeing Chris talk to her so happily as his eyes lit up.

“A pleasure, Chris has been going on and on about what an excellent pianist you are” Celeste blushed, looking at Chris with loving eyes, which Aubrey noticed right away, the look of a deluded young girl and naive, a bit of jealousy grew in her, feeling the need to bring her down a bit from the clouds with her teacher.

Aubrey looked at Chris slyly and then at Celeste, she noticed he was looking at her too. Aubrey and Chris had history, a silly, slightly innocent history and after all this time, after seeing him become quite the man, she didn't hesitate for a second to get back together with him.

“Well, well… we stayed at that dinner thing together, we seriously need to catch up with each other after so many years, it was really nice to see you” the older woman mentioned, turning her body again towards Chris.

His attention turned back to her, Chris smiled at her, narrowing his eyes and showing his dimples. Something Celeste loves for him to do, when he's with just her. Her heart began to pound, she was so jealous to see him with another woman, because it didn't look like simple kindness, Celeste recognized all the body language of Aubrey blatantly flirting with Chris even so in the presence of her, as if she was a simple little girl waiting for her teacher on the side of the door and with nothing to worry about, not having the slightest idea that this girl who Aubrey thought was insignificant, was the reason for Chris's sighs and obsession. She could handle anything about him with no problem. She was his prized possession, his favorite person.

“Oh wow, seriously what a small world, meeting again, sure we can go out on, Friday is that okay? Or it can be sooner these days” Chris replied, always in his flirtatious and playful tone.

Celeste wanted to cry, but out of anger. Why was he accepting a date with another woman in front of her face, she felt silly, weak, not at all important to him, while she had to set dumb boundaries and be rude to Hyunjin, not even seeing him at lunch, having to eat alone, hiding from him.

“I'm so curious to hear from you, I can't wait, how about tomorrow, I'll send you a…”

“He has a girlfriend” Celeste suddenly blurted out, her fist clenched and tense, drawing the attention of her two superiors in the room.

Again warmth and embarrassment came over her and flashed across her face, she had no idea why she said it, she just wanted to let her know that somehow her flirtations were in vain, Chris was hers, or at least that she hoped more than anything else in the world. Aubrey watched her a little incredulously and then turned her gaze to Chris, who was looking at Celeste a little surprised and withering.

“Ah, I see Bang, you haven't changed at all, you still have several girlfriends… it's Lydia, right?”

Chris smiled sideways, “Leah, no, I don't date her anymore… it's just, you know how much I love to talk and talk…” tried to explain himself Chris when an important call saved him, “Sorry” he apologized as he saw he had to take it.

“I'll text you, okay? See ya” she said, pushing past Celeste and walking out of his office.

She was puzzled not understanding the comments they were both giving each other, as if they knew each other; she stared at Chris, who before answering said in a low voice moving his lips exaggeratedly so she could read what he was saying, “I'll be with you in a moment” as he waved his hand for her to leave.

She looked at him confused and saddened as to why he suddenly didn't want her there with him, it hurt a little, but he didn't catch her sad look as he quickly took the call, greeting them in Korean, so loud and clear and appealingly spoken.

Celeste walked out, sad and crestfallen, feeling so many emotions, wanting to tell him so many things… but was surprised to see shoes she recognized instantly, she looked up and tried to change her countenance as she noticed the swim coach was still there. Aubrey smirked, thinking that Celeste had come out of there like that because she was experiencing an unethical and immoral crush on her teacher, and that she was sad about it. It wasn't forbidden or even illegal, it would still look so wrong and more so coming from such a highly prestigious institution.

“Oh, sweetheart, how old are you?” she said to Celeste.

Celeste looked at her in confusion, and whispered, “I'm twenty…”

“Honestly you look a little younger than that; and do you know how old Chris is?” she commented, crossing her arms.

Celeste nodded, still confused.

“Exactly, an advice between girls, twenty and twenty-seven is not the same, don't look for older guys, you can find plenty of guys your age all over college, cutie, why cling to your professor?”

Celeste almost opened her mouth from how shocked she was from her statement, thinking of so many things at once, filled her head with how come she could have known she had feelings for Chris, was it so obvious? Would the others have noticed it too? Aubrey noticed, Celeste was a bit transparent in reflecting emotions from time to time.

“I saw the way you look at him, it's very sweet really, you're a very cute girl. Chris has everything, isn't he a dream?” she added, “And how do you know he has a girlfriend or is it something you said all of sudden?”

She was suddenly intimidated, her eyes were big and her gaze piercing, “H-he told me” Celeste replied in a stammer.

She smiled incredulously, “Mmm, that's strange, he told me he wasn't seeing anyone, maybe he told you so you'd stop getting your hopes up” she blurted out as if it was nothing, “But anyway, men. See you later, I hope you take my advice, you really are a pretty girl, you can have anyone you want.”

Aubrey thought that Celeste could even have Chris, which she couldn't help but feel a little threatened. But she judged Celeste as an innocent girl, not the horny kind of girl who would mess with her teacher, or at least that's what she wanted to convince herself, and walked away. Leaving poor Celeste with a huge void and her mind spinning, seriously Chris told her he wasn't seeing anyone? That meant he wasn't exclusive with her and was seeing other girls?

It seemed stupid to Celeste since they are practically together all the time but… in little moments like this, even in such a short time, any woman can appear to someone like Chris. She felt so dizzy amidst her overload of emotions that just seeing Chris could stabilize her, but in so few seconds, she felt sick again.

And the worst part was that she couldn't make a scene there, they both had a strict rule not to talk about their personal issues at college, but he broke it by seeing that no one was around and whispering sweetly to her,

“Hey, dear, do you want to go practice now or shall we go home and practice there a bit?”

She watched him, so unable to believe that he could be calm after he flirted with someone else in front of her. Or well, she wasn't sure if it was flirting on Chris's part directly, but something about the tone in which he spoke to Aubrey bothered her so much.

“I can't. I have some group work to do, we'll do it here” she rushed to say in a lie.

Chris raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Will you be long or can I wait for you?” again, the mild obsession gnawing at his insides.

“Obviously it'll took a while” she replied somewhat annoyed.

“Well, let me know when you're done so I can pick you up, there's so much to talk about we can't do it here” Chris sentenced.

Celeste couldn't agree more with the last thing he said, but she didn't know exactly what to say, and she didn't want him around right now either, she still had a bitter taste in her mouth from seeing him like that with another woman, and what made her most angry was that he didn't even seemed to care.

She walked around campus aimlessly, no chance of sneaking home because he would discover her, it was as if he knew her every move but she never knew his. When she was feeling sad, before she met Chris and also wanting to escape from home for a bit, she would go to the university museum, sometimes they brought new pieces, which made her curious; 10 minutes of walking around and she ran into Hyunjin, who she saw that he still didn't see her so she quickly turned around, but he could recognize her hair, back, scent and her characteristic short skirts for miles, there was no one more resplendent in the whole university like her, for Hyunjin.

“Hey, Celeste!” he called to her, happy and almost running towards her, “Did you finish what you were busy with?”

She turned to look at him and smiled, “Yeah…” she replied.

“You wanna watch the rest of the exhibit with me?”

She nodded, after all she was there to distract herself and would only focus on the art. Having finished touring the place, Hyunjin finally had a chance to tell her:

“Are you okay? I've noticed you looking strange” he was worried, he even noticed a certain expression of fear on her.

“Yeah… I've just been, stressed I guess.”

“Let's go out to distract you a little” he added with a tender smile.

Celeste was about to say no, she had gotten used to say no to him so many times that this time she stopped and thought exactly the words Chris said to that woman.

“Sure, the sooner the better.”

“Precisely I'm available now” Hyunjin spoke, widening his smile, raising his cheeks and showing his teeth.

Celeste felt so bad for thinking that Hyunjin was really cute, she immediately thought if it also crossed Chris's mind, if that Aubrey was cute, and suddenly, a pain in her chest. She thought she couldn't compete with her, her body was athletic and she was Chris's age, or at least to what Celeste understood.

Hyunjin invited Celeste to his apartment where he would show her his studio, she was nervous, she hadn't been to another guy's house alone before, only with Chris, who a little confused again insisted her as it was around 5pm:

Please lmk when you're done to pick you up, princess. Take care ❤️ I guess you took the day off from work? Mmm how are you going to make up for it? let me know! I want to see you already

She ignored every single one of his messages. Furious thinking that he should be getting ready for his date with another woman anyway. Hyunjin noticed the discomfort and the slight grimace she made every time her cell phone rang and read the messages, he immediately thought that a guy was harassing her, so he asked her, but she wouldn't talk about it, insisting that it was nothing.

Hyunjin wished deep down that she would stop the games and want to know directly if she likes him or not, if she sees someone else, sometimes he just wanted to be inside her head, to live in her to navigate her thoughts, without the slightest idea that her mind only thinks of one man. Chris, and the myriad of emotions he made her feel.

She noticed the sweetness and passion he explained every single thing, and as she received more messages from Chris, her feelings for Hyunjin detonated more, she really thought about how he deserved someone better, not someone who would turn to him when she didn't want to see someone who maintains a slightly unusual relationship with.

It was eight o'clock at night, she was ignoring Chris the whole time. And Chris noticed since the first rejected call that she was ignoring him, he called her at seven o'clock, skeptical that she was still working on that project at the university at that time of night. He tried to be sweet, called her back, and when he didn't get an answer, he wrote back:

If you went to a classmate's house to finish the project, let me know, I don't want you to come home late and alone

Chris was suddenly furious that she was reading the messages, but suddenly she stopped reading them, she had deactivated that setting.

It was after eight o'clock and he had heard absolutely nothing from her, he wanted to go crazy.

Celeste, where are you? Why don't you answer me?

She sighed, thinking about how annoying he really was, he didn't have to know where she was all the time. Celeste raised her gaze, watching Hyunjin and unconsciously said to him:

“You really deserve someone… who knows everything about you” she commented, without thinking and lost in his face.

The comment surprised Hyunjin, “You don't know me well enough?” he replied.

She tilted her head gently in confusion and he repeated her action, moving a little closer to her face, she reacted quickly, wanting to run away as soon as possible, she noticed the incredible tension and as angry as she is with Chris, she couldn't just be with another man.

“Mmm I have to go” she hurried to say, snapping out of her trance and grabbing her things.

Hyunjin pressed his lips together, unsure if he said something wrong; he didn't say anything, he just followed her and stopped her at the door, holding her back and looking intimidating.

“You have to tell me now, do you not like me or are you seeing someone else?”

Celeste looked at him nervously, she had never seen him like this before and, she didn't know if what Chris said was a lie or not about not dating anyone, but unlike him, she spoke the truth.

“I'm dating someone.”

Hyunjin, tensed his jaw and began to move it in disbelief at her confession, he didn't know if she meant it, although her look looked sincere, or if she was just saying it to chase him away.

“You're dating someone and yet you decide to accept all my dates?”

She blinked in confusion, wondering if it really did look bad that she was hanging out with him on what she considered friendly dates, remembering Chris once again and how he was right, he was always right, at times like these she missed him so much.

“Because I like you… your friendship” she replied innocently to which Hyunjin annoyedly ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth.

“Is it someone I know?” he questioned to which she quickly denied, “Let me at least drive you home, it's late.”

The ride was silent, they really both didn't know what to say, but Hyunjin was so curious to know if what she said was true or if it was a lie to send him to the friend zone. They said goodbye shyly to each other and as she walked into her house, Celeste stayed for a moment with her mother in the living room, who was watching TV and looking calm. She wanted to stay there because she knew perfectly well that if she went to her room, Chris would see her there and she felt a little nervous about even seeing him, for some reason.

But as soon as she arrived, a message from him appeared, as if he was keeping an eye on everything she was doing.

Who dropped you off?

“You look very pretty today,” her mother whispered to her.

Celeste looked at her, and suddenly a wave of sadness came over her, she never believed she could be so distanced from her, to the point where she doesn't think of her and sometimes feels her as a stranger. Her own mother. Then she remembered her father again, it was strange that he disappeared, even that he stopped answering Blake; Celeste believed that he had finally developed his last form as a complete bad man.

She felt sad and hesitated whether to go see Chris or not, but she had so much shock to know if what he said was true, so, unsure she headed home and unsure knocking on his door, he opened so fast on the second knock, seeing her and feeling a relief.

Chris was a mess, thinking of all the places she could go, all the things she could do, he was slowly losing his mind.

“Agh, Celeste” Chris greeted her by hugging her, “Where were you?”

She was surprised that she wasn't even quick to reciprocate the hug, but she did close her eyes enjoying his manly and characteristic scent; it was as if he hadn't seen her in so long, she felt strange and thought that making him suffer from once in a while was okay, if he was going to receive her like that.

Chris was furious, but decided to put his anger aside and focus on her, he understood that maybe meeting Aubrey so suddenly was unexpected, which was exactly the reason for her behavior and rebelliousness. So, he tried to understand her; still treating her gently.

“Mmm, you smell a little like paint” Chris whispered to her as he pulled away from her.

“It was an art project” she said quickly remembering the tension with Hyunjin and feeling bad.

Then she remembered… and him feeling bad, was it something real to him too? Or he was just going to pretend nothing happened hours ago…

“What did you want to talk about…?” she asked, interested once she entered his house.

She followed him into the kitchen, Chris put his hands on her waist and pulled her into his body, bumping into him as he wore a small smile, totally unconcerned.

“How far did you go to do that project? Did you have dinner already?”

“Far. I'm not hungry” she replied curtly looking into his eyes.

Chris ran his tongue under the inside of his lower lip playfully as his hands went down to caress her ass under her skirt.

“And why did you ignore all my texts? You know I don't like that. What kept you so busy?” he told her calmly but in a warning tone.

She couldn't help but feel nervous even though Chris was saying it in a relaxed, playful manner.

“And what kept you so busy that you had to cancel our practice schedule?” she blurted out suddenly without taking her eyes off him.

Chris smiled sideways, knowing full well that it was bothering her but he wanted to let it go by not making a big deal out of it.

“That's what you've been thinking about all day, isn't it?” he said to her, playfully.

But to Celeste it wasn't funny. Chris was about to tell her that she didn't have to worry but the last time he said it to a girl of his, he ended up with the girl that she had nothing to worry about supposedly. But this time was different, he really wouldn't change Celeste for anything or anyone.

“Why did you tell her I had a girlfriend? You were a little jealous, weren't you, babygirl?” he squeezed her ass tighter and made her body rub against his, “Now she's harping on me about who my girlfriend is, should I tell her it's you, like it's no big deal?”

Celeste didn't know whether to be flattered to accept that maybe they had a relationship, or at least him implicitly suggesting it, or his message was so confusing that she didn't quite get it, or she didn't know whether to be embarrassed since introducing her would make Aubrey realize that this is his student. But she could only say:

“Has she been texting you? Who is she? Why was she flirting with you? You should have told her no.”

Chris let out a small chuckle without releasing her from his grip.

“Tell her no…? That's what you think? Come on princess, use your words” he whispered close to her lips.

She looked at his whole face before she spoke and he kind of enjoyed watching her make a little mess of it as she tried to settle her thoughts.

“She told me that you told her you weren't dating someone and it made me feel bad, and who is she anyway? You shouldn't be dating other women, I don't care” she suddenly exploded, saying everything she had bottled up from deep in her chest.

Chris's smile widened, finding her incredibly more tender when she was angry.

“You're right, I'll tell her I'm not available” Chris replied softly which amazed her.

“You should have told her that, before you talked to her for a long time. You haven't told me who she is yet” Celeste added, in a firm tone.

Chris finally released her, making himself comfortable by sitting down in one of the high chairs near his counter.

“You really want to know? Well. She was my first girlfriend before I left to Korea.”

Chris smiled remembering how innocent and silly it was, they were both kids, he really never thought he would ever see her again, he barely even remembered her, but his attention was focused on the young girl in front of him who had a pout on her face, Celeste really preferred not to know, a love since they were kids? How was she supposed to compete with that, besides Celeste kept thinking what an attractive woman she was. Celeste thought that was the reason she was acting that way, maybe that woman still thought Chris could belong to her.

And, when Celeste doubted that Chris could be hers only, he said, looking at her sweetly:

“Oh, but come here” Chris grabbed her wrist and pulling her closer to him, “Don't get like this over something insignificant… it's a common thing… I don't go around asking about every petty kid you went out with before me.”

It was obvious that Chris only wanted her, his constant messages to her were evidence, he couldn't let her out of his sight for a second, he was head over heels for her and, if she wanted to call him her boyfriend, he was more than fine with that.

Celeste looked at him nervously, because there was no one before him. So finally, she confessed to him. Just to let him know that she was indeed seriously committed to him.

“I've had no one else before you,” she said quietly.

He looked at her, blinked once confused, not understanding what she meant so he repeated a subtle and soft “What?”

“No one” she repeated. “There was no one before you.”

Chris looked at her again confused, unable to believe that boys hadn't looked for her before and thinking for a few moments that this was a joke. He saw her with a relaxed and comical face, but seeing the tender and with her sincere look and serious countenance, his smile gradually erased, understanding perfectly.

“Are you serious?” she nodded, “W-why didn't you tell me… I could've made it more special and been more delicate with you” Chris replied hurt, his head spinning.

He felt so many emotions, he was so impressed, remembering that the first time they had sex was special, but Chris felt he could have made it better, more memorable for her, but for her it was already something she would never forget and, in fact she remembers happily, as her first intimacy with him, doing it in his bed.

“I didn't think it was necessary, it was special for me just to do it with you” she added shyly.

Chris wanted to swoon for her.

“I… let me try one more time, I'll be most gentle, okay?”

He watched her, eyes so bright, begging for her approval. He couldn't believe he took away her innocence without even knowing it.

TWELVE: mrs. potato head

is it true that pain is beauty? does a new face come with a warranty? will a pretty face make it better? ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

Chris's mind kept thinking about Celeste's confession, he found it hard that he had corrupted her like that. But after the incredible guilt, the word corruption for him turned to another meaning, to think how delicate and innocent she was every time they had sex, how he didn't see it before, he actually just thought she was young and inexperienced, but not brand new.

He couldn't help but feel strangely excited at the thought of being the only man to touch her and to have touched her, it was as if his deepest wish came true, that she was completely his, belonging to him. After her confession, he hugged her and let her know that it was all right, that it was so ordinary, trying to hide the fact that something incredible huge and insatiable was growing inside him, besides his ego.

His mind kept spinning on the myriad of things he wanted to show her, on everything he would make her feel, he tried to evade the thoughts, he didn't want an erection so early in the morning while he was at work.

On the other hand, Celeste did feel a little exposed telling him that… she couldn't be happier that only Chris had been her first experience at all and he comforted her in seconds… but seeing Chris's former partner walking around the campus, looking for him, seemed a little hard for her to handle. Like a naive young girl, she began to compare herself to her and her mind kept betraying her as she suddenly remembered Chris's ex-girlfriend's face, which looked unreal, with a thin build because of her genetics, and her face worthy of a celebrity, all day long that haunted her and she couldn't help but feel insecure. She was sick of seeing Aubrey texting Chris, whose messages he didn't respond to, or at least Celeste watched him ignoring them when he was with her and the way she went looking for him in the mornings, since she had nothing else to do but watch him from afar since she showed up in their lives.

Celeste watched her perfect, lifted, shapely ass furiously; sighing and thinking that she would need to go to the gym after all, she felt as bad as she never had, she never felt this way not even when she watched the other girls her age develop sooner when she was younger, for attention from guys, it was never something she cared about, but now she only cared about Chris's attention and couldn't stand to see how he was surrounded by temptation. Celeste felt so inferior next to her, Chris's ex girlfriend really had a body to die for; now Celeste spends long minutes looking at every part of her body in front of the mirror with the curtain on so Chris doesn't notice how much she analyzes herself, and questions if she is doing her makeup the right way, when makeup used to be such a nice thing for her, now it just frustrated her.

But Chris, with all due respect, didn't give a shit about his first ex-girlfriend and her attempts at flirting, his mind was just spinning for his student, while the poor thing was sinking in her thoughts and insecurities… he on the other hand had the idea of something exciting, he just had to tell her. And he seized the moment when they were alone, after days of her confession; Chris couldn't wait until he was home, because he actually wanted to do it all once they got there.

“Group concert this weekend” she whispered, reminding Chris, as she a little crestfallen played a soft melody of random keys with one hand, she was remembering her entire concert schedule, until she happily recalled, “And your birthday is coming up too!”

She turned to see him with a smile, somehow it lifted her spirits to know she would be spending a birthday with him, she visualized herself singing happy birthday to him as she hugged him tightly. Chris watched her tenderly and moved his face closer, caressing her bare thigh with his hand, fighting his immense urge to grab her and kiss her for her adorable reaction of emotion, but he had to concentrate, there was no one around but he was indisposed to give extra displays of affection towards her in college, he only allowed himself to caress her thigh.

“And what do you have planned for me?” he teased, squeezing her thigh.

Celeste looked at him in surprise, remembering that she had absolutely nothing.

“Don't worry” he added, “I can't ask for anything better than to be with you” he said with a playful smile, a little shy with his red ears, which she found extremely adorable and touching, but suddenly things escalated as she felt his hand on her thigh move up to her panties, “But you can start giving me little presents from now on… how about playing a little with daddy once we get home?”

She stared into his eyes, a rush of excitement and heat rushed through her body, he had stopped referring to himself as daddy for a while now, and had stopped talking to her in that low, slow tone of voice, as she almost sighed as she felt his gentle brush of his long fingers play with the hems of her panties, Celeste remembered he hadn't touched her in long days, she was beyond excited to be intimate with him again, she suddenly wanted him so badly, right now; she wanted Chris to take her and touch her without mercy. Plus feeling desired by him lifted her mood a little, knowing that he fantasized about her and no one else.

She nodded frantically, so happy, which caused Chris to let out a giggle; she had already had her period of a pure sweet honeymoon after their conflict, she was more than ready to feel the insatiable sexual desire she feels for Chris again.

“Yes, daddy, please” she whispered in his ear.

Chris repeated her act, whispering to her, "I'm going to teach you everything slowly, and make you feel very good, babydoll, daddy will be very gentle and thoughtful with you."

Celeste felt her pussy throbbing at the sound of his voice close by as so many ideas came to her mind, she was beginning to get aroused, they were both in their own world, until abruptly the sound of the door made them part quickly, Chris removed his hand from under her skirt and straightened up his posture, both of them with their hearts pounding as they turned in terror to see who it was.

And there she was, following Chris acting immaturely, or so Celeste thought.

“Oh, sorry, I knew you'd be here…” she spoke to which Chris pressed his lips together in annoyance.

He was starting to lose himself in his adored babydoll until she appeared, honestly he was about to lose his temper and tell her to come to his office just now to give Celeste a preview of all the pleasure release he had planned for her, in his mind were images of him carrying her and leaving her sitting on his desk so he could eat and enjoy her sweet pretty pussy, playing with it, lifting her skirt and listening to her moans that made him climax… but they just had to be interrupted.

“I need to talk to you” she added, a little away from both of them.

Chris cleared his throat and walked towards her and then left. Aubrey on the other hand noticed their pale faces and witnessed a dangerously inappropriate closeness of faces and bodies between the two of them… she wondered curiously if Celeste was really fucking her teacher when she always found her innocent.

After tormenting minutes for Celeste, Chris appeared, returning to the seat with her.

“What did she say to you?” she whispered trying to sound uninterested.

“Nothing important, really” he replied and saw her slight pout.

Chris smiled and dared a kiss on her slightly puffy cheeck.

[…]

The rest of the day Chris wanted to make it so nice and memorable for her, they went to lunch, he took her to the beach and they spent some quality time at an arcade date, all meticulously planned so that she wouldn't remember it as just another day where they went home and he fucked her; he really wanted her to feel good and be aware that she could talk to him about everything and do more nice activities that didn't just involve sex.

At first she felt self-conscious, claiming she didn't have the right outfit to go on all those nice dates, even believing her makeup wasn't the best that day; Chris was confused as to why all of a sudden so much negativity towards herself and he smoothly reminded her how beautiful she looked, complimenting her and showering her with compliments, followed by sweetly saying he'd like to spend his birthday at the beach, with her.

She couldn't have been more in love, every time she was with him she felt like a new person, a better version where only nice things about her existed. And then, the tense moment once she walked through the door of his home, she had forgotten the couple of things he had said that almost got them caught.

Chris didn't know what to say, suddenly nervous so he only spoke, “Ah, that was very cute and fun, do you want some water, baby?”

She shook her head softly and he moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and spoke again, softer and in his thick voice, “Do you want to… take a bath? I want you to wear something special for me tonight.”

“Something special?” she gently raised her eyebrow.

“A very nice set of lingerie I want you to wear for me.”

Warmth rose to her cheeks, her whole body temperature rose, she was about to smile but remembered that by taking a bath her makeup and hairstyle would disappear and she didn't want to look like that for Chris, she was already feeling a little insecure about her appearance, plus she wanted to look as dolled up for him, as she thought he deserved to be with a pretty and always dressed up woman.

“But I'm going to take my makeup off and…”

“You're beautiful to me anyway” he interrupted her, "You want to do it like that?"

She denied again this time more frantically, Chris had offered her to take a shower because he knew perfectly well how she was about being a little uncomfortable in her outside clothes, and that was exactly another thing she was thinking.

“But I want to look really pretty for you, daddy,” she moved closer to him, looking up at him with pitying eyes, “And don't say I'm always pretty for you.”

“You took the phrase right out of my mouth, fine. If that's what you want babygirl, I'm going to wait here.”

“I'll go get ready at my house,” she replied happily, leaning over to give him a quick kiss, “I won't be long really, daddy.”

And she did, as fast as she could, taking her time to clean and primp herself up so carefully for Chris, keeping her process hidden by having her curtain on, picking out a nice outfit that she would end up taking it off anyway - and that she had no problem with - she put effort into her makeup and hair, spraying herself before she left with her favorite perfume, so that a little over two hours later, she appeared at his door, nervous and all dolled up from head to toe, looking incredibly cute and taking Chris's breath away.

“Wooah” he sighed at the sight of her, opening his mouth and eyes in awe and admiration, almost without even touching her, she looked so unreal to him, like a delicate doll on display. “You look beautiful.”

Her makeup perfectly on her face, her perfect shade of blush and that lipgloss that drove him crazy, he was speechless; as was she, as Chris also appeared clean and well dressed, with black jeans, white sleeveless shirt tight to his body showing a bit of his muscular chest and over that, a loose and unbuttoned down black shirt.

She blushed, “You look great too, daddy.”

Chris let her in, and smiled; he decided to dress up because he was a little nervous and didn't exactly know how to kill time while waiting for her.

“Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna out my cock anyways, but you deserved that I also looked good for you, babygirl.”

She laughed, getting a little heated at his kind of teasing comment, he loved seeing her tender reaction.

“You always look good, daddy” she replied in a squeaky voice, kissing his lips again with a smile plastered on her lips.

“Wait, let me enjoy you a little more” he whispered after she distanced herself a little, again taking control of her body and kissing her deeply.

Chris picked her up, kissing her and desperately taking in air as he pulled away from her for a moment to continue his kisses frantically feeling every part of her lips and making her open her mouth to feel the warmth and wetness of their tongues colliding; effortlessly, he walked up the stairs with her in his arms, until he took her to his room where he had everything planned for their very sizzling night to take place. Chris sat on the edge of his bed and she parted slightly to catch her breath, they both saw each other, lips glossy and swollen with their heavy breaths.

“You decide when you want me to start or if you still want to continue kissing each other” he said to which she nodded without thinking clearly, “Yes what?”

“W-we can start now daddy” she spoke fully aroused.

Chris smiled broadly, "That's my good gir, now, do you want me to show you the set or do you want to see for yourself?"

“Show me, daddy.”

He smiled again, narrowing his eyes and with soft dimples reflecting beside his smile, he took her by the waist to move her a little and set her aside on his bed, she bit her lip, with so many questions on her mind but happy to see him heading towards his closet where he pulled out from there the garments just as he had already told her, the white lace set that consisted of bralette with ruffles on the shoulders and small pastel pink details between the middle of the chest, and with a pink bow in the back below the neck, the bottom part assimilated a tiny skirt, he also wanted to combine it with a pair of tights to slightly above the knee.

“It's pretty, daddy.”

“You'll make it look more beautiful, come on, let me put it on you.”

She stood up quickly, Chris took of her clothing, starting to undress her and she a little shyly, let him do it, lifting her arms to remove her top, letting his hands pull at her skirt, remove her bra, slide down her panties looking admiringly at her pussy, to put on the perfectly fitting outfit he had picked out for her.

“Turn around, let me help you.”

He clasped her bra from the set, Chris licked his lips surrendered to the image of her exposed mons pubis to then slide the panties up her legs, his cock was so hard with his mind filled with dirty yet sweet thoughts as he found her incredibly beautiful, thinking how good she looked in white, which he chose with specialty to reflect her sweetness and innocence, the set looked wonderful on her, now she really had become completely his doll. He put on her over the knee socks, for the last part, very cute with a pink bow on them. Chris took some time to appreciate her, her aura, perfect hair and makeup were the cherry on top of the cake in the sweetness that was her. She felt pretty too.

“You look beautiful, I don't even know how to put it into words” he said which made her very happy, “Alright doll, I'm gonna show you everything, I want you to enjoy every single thing, because I adore you.”

His words shocked her so much that she went from being wet to involving stronger feelings like love, she was also sure she would adore every bit of it. And Chris also somewhat adored the idea that she was a bit inexperienced in sexual acts.

Chris sat back down, taking hold of her wrist and whispering, "Come here, let me warm you up a little" and sat her on his lap, where he kissed her again, slower and sweeter but at the same time so dirty, with his left hand caressing her face and then moving down to cup her neck and with his right hand begin to caress her clit. She was so wet, curiosity consumed her to know what kind of games Chris had planned for her. Chris rubbed her sensitive spot with his long two fingers, getting her a little insanely excited.

“Let's have some fun” he added with a flirtatious smile as he parted his lips after a long moment of his display of affection, “Put your body on my thighs, let daddy see your ass, remember I will only make you feel good today” he told her so she wouldn't think he was going to implement a physical punishment on her.

She obeyed, the softness of the lingerie brushing against her skin and with her s thighs over his, giving him a view of her ass.

“Let's see how wet you are…” he murmured, pulling the fabric of her panties aside and feeling her soaking wet pussy, “Fuck” he cursed at the sensation of his fingers getting wet.

She flinched, his fingers were cool and soft and she gently moved her hips for better friction as she bit her lip, she was so needy, she could only think of how much she needed her daddy's spoiling.

“You're so needy, aren't you sweet dolly?” he told her, slipping his fingers in as his other hand caressed her ass.

She moaned, almost as if he had read her memory, “Y-yes, daddy” she gasped at the sensation of his long fingers sliding inside her, “I'm so needy, please” she mumbled.

Chris's fingers were as nimble as the rest of him and his movements, he knew exactly how far of her to touch and how to make her feel good and quiver, Chris explored her warm puffy insides, beginning to fuck her thoroughly, his fingers making a sound each time he bumped against her soaking wet pussy and his cock about to explode in his pants, so needy and throbbing.

“Babygirl, how do you feel about daddy using your tiny asshole aswell to play, can I, sweetie?” he leaned into her face a little.

She sighed, confused between the pleasure of his fingers and at the sudden question, considering she barely even had vaginal sex, now he was suggesting anal sex? She didn't think too much about it and nodded, open to whatever Chris wanted to experiment with her body.

“Y-yes, daddy, I'm okay with it.”

Chris grinned broadly and mischievously, still ramming his fingers into her, feeling her orgasm close to how needy and aroused she was.

“C'mon, princess, you can cum, do it, do- good girl.”

Celeste released herself on Chris's fingers, panting, her eyes rolling and her mouth slightly open, clenching her legs and bending them as her hands gripped the bed sheet, making a mess of squirting Chris's hand and her thighs, she hadn't been touched in a while.

Today, Chris was spared his slightly denigrating comments encouraging her, calling her a whore, a slut, because since that night everything changed for him, it was a new perception he held of her, she was truly a pure angel that he was corrupting; so he would just call her every sweet name possible; unless at some point she wanted to be treated a little rough.

“Good girl, a very sweet princess, cumming for daddy.”

Celeste felt so good to get that kind of comment, at the same time she felt slightly exhausted, she had cum with intensity. Chris pulled her panties down a little just below her pussy, more forcefully, exposing her ass, from which he spread her buttocks apart, bringing his wet fingers to her anal hole, stimulating it a little, she moaned at the new sensation of now being serviced there; then she felt nothing, but witnessed as she turned her head as Chris leaned over to his drawer to pull out of a cabinet two objects which at first glance she had no idea what they were, and a small bottle. A vibrator, a crystal dildo with a pretty pink cat face shaped finish and lube. She sighed half-heartedly and excitedly, Chris looked so serious as he pulled them out, but as soon as he saw the slightly frightened look on her face, his countenance softened.

“You know what these are, babygirl?”

She narrowed her eyes to look at them more closely, she could distinguish that the white item was a vibrator, and the glass object she wasn't sure of its name, but she was sure he was going to insert it somewhere in her body.

“A… vibrator” she replied unsure and shy.

“And a dildo to fuck your pretty ass and lube” he replied matter-of-factly, causing shivers down her spine, “Please tell me when you want me to stop or if you're not feeling uncomfortable, okay?”

She nodded sweetly at his concerned but excited tone of voice. Celeste continued with her body turned, she wanted to watch curiously as the pretty, cute, crystal dildo entered her. She watched him put lube on his finger, spread her buttocks apart again then smear the cool gel on the area, making her whimper a little, Chris took the dildo and slowly and gently pushed it into her. Celeste shrank her body at the new sensation, nothing had ever entered there before, she felt the bumps of the material and the hardness and coldness of the sex toy sliding into her anal duct, for some reason, it turned her on so much to see Chris concentrating, and then he made eye contact with her to see her reaction.

“Are you liking it?”

“Yes, daddy.”

Chris inserted half of the toy, moving it gently to get her body used to it and once he saw that she turned her body and started moaning, Chris fucked her with the dildo with one hand and with the other, he went back to caressing her labia and her sensitive little vaginal hole, making her reach such high levels of sexual pleasure that she was unaware of and that lifted her so high; Celeste's weak and fragile body began to vibrate, feeling completely full in two of her most sensitive orifices, little tears began to come out of her eyes, ruining her makeup, the dildo hurt a little but it felt so good; it felt so fucking good that she kept whimpering and Chris sped up his two movements, being an expert. Once again, the huge knot grew in her stomach and released again in a second orgasm, at the same time Chris ejaculated inside his pants from the constant friction of her restless body and the glorious scene of her two holes being treated with attention as her young body collapsed on top of him.

Chris smiled in satisfaction, but that was only the beginning of wanting to see her like that, he wanted her to cum so many times, to make her remember every detail of the night.

“Come on, princess, lie down on the bed” he ordered.

Chris slowly withdrew the dildo, making her shudder again, and pulled her panties back up. Celeste was tired, wet, her orgasm dripping down her thighs, her cheeks red, her eyes watering, and she still couldn't even see her lover's big cock. In that state, she thought how horrible ordinary relationships were, and regretted wanting one, she loved being treated as Chris's sex toy, she loved being useful to her daddy, but it was something she dared not confess out loud. She took a breath and forcefully, sat up, almost crawling in the middle of the bed, resting her back on her pillows and backrest.

This time she watched Chris pull out two pink leather handcuffs with plush insides.

“Okay, just this once I'll be a little strict, you can't touch anything while daddy tortures your little pussy, show me your wrists.”

She watched him with sparkling eyes and obeyed his request, Chris climbed onto his bed, getting on his knees to approach her, he lightly roughly grabbed her wrists to accommodate them properly and placed the handcuffs on her, squeezing them lightly.

“Fuck, I gotta touch myself with this, babygirl” he moaned, unbuttoning his pants and pulling down his boxers to free his erect cock.

Celeste watched his member with desire, it was so swollen and red, its thick tip dripping with his precum, she hadn't touched it in a while.

“Open your legs for me” he added.

Chris took the vibrator, turned it on and with an amused smile, rubbed the object along her pussy over the fabric of her panties. She gasped, louder this time, clenching her fists; Chris began stroking his cock and masturbating to the image of her needy body, her pretty face flushed and her panties getting wetter and wetter. Chris would change speeds and vibration patterns from time to time, teasing her entrance, her labia, and her very sensitive clit. Celeste couldn't believe it, she was on a cloud of pleasure; she looked down at her throbbing pussy, and then up at him, who was enjoying the show of her body reacting and whimpering more than anything else. Celeste moved her hands to her mouth, so excited from the constant motion of the vibrator's silicone head hitting her pussy. She couldn't take her eyes off Chris, her eyes were begging for mercy for no apparent reason; his strong arm holding the sex object, his visible veins, making it look like a demanding task and his big hand stroking his cock… her poor body couldn't contain itself and in a loud whimper, she cummed again, dripping down both sides of the hems of her panties.

“Oh fuck” gasped Chris too, biting his lip hard and his neck vein bulging.

He dropped the vibrator, moving closer to her, and cumming on her exposed belly, filling her with his warm, glistening white liquid.

“Come up, lick the rest of my cum, please, little angel” Chris whimpered, holding his cock.

She stirred, despite being shaken, straightened her posture and leaned down to his cock, making eye contact with him and catching the cum that was about to fall out gracefully, running her tongue up and down his length cleaning him of every residue of his cum on his cock, swallowing it happily. Celeste was more than ready to take his entire cock into her mouth, sucking him off because she loved him so much, but Chris had plans to only satisfy her.

“Good girl, now lay down again, babygirl, daddy's gonna fuck you gently and sweet, it's what you deserve... Do you want me to use a condom or do you want to daddy fill up your little pussy?”

“Mmm, fill me up daddy, please” she whimpered without thinking, watching him lustfully as she let her body fall.

“Baby, have you ever been to the gynecologist?” he spoke, removing the handcuffs, she denied innocently, “I'll make an appointment for you, we have to discuss what our method will be if I'm going to keep fucking you, love. Besides you have to check that everything is in order in your pretty princess parts” she listened to him carefully, nodding but he tugged her panties hard, making her sigh and him let out a small giggle.

Chris settled himself, ready to enter her, but she said, “Daddy, please… can you take off your shirt?” he sucked air between his teeth with a guilty smile, thinking maybe she wasn't as innocent as he thought she was after all.

“You like daddy's body, don't you babygirl?” Chris took off his shirts, showing off his abs. She nodded apologetically, her face red with embarrassment and from so many climaxes.

Chris reached up to her face, brushed his nose against hers and then gave her a tender kiss, followed by capturing her lips gently. Pulling away, Chris slowly pushed his cock into her tight entrance, feeling her stretch open for his size; Celeste moaned in pain again once he was entering and felt it fully in her.

“Are you okay, babygirl? Are you…”

“Yes, daddy, I'm okay” Celeste interrupted him as she realized he was going to start to worry, she only told him so and kissed him briefly, making him smile.

He in one swift movement lifted her bralette, exposing her breast, and began to ram into her slowly, one hand on her neck and jaw, caressing her face with his thumb as he kissed her passionately, giving himself completely to her, delighting her with the steady motion and pace of his hips, sliding his entire cock deep inside her, her panting between Chris's lips; until making her arch her back, once again filling her body with sexual energy, ready to come, until she climaxed, collapsing and shuddering under the body of the man she loved. Chris was soon cumming, filling her with him, her throbbing hole expelling the rest of both of them.

Chris pressed a kiss to Celeste's forehead, watching her agitated body struggle to make itself up.

“You did it so well, my princess.”

Chris was breathless too, he just wanted to make sure that, every time he fucked her, she felt good, wanted, yes, he did want to corrupt her, but at the moment, being hard on her wasn't on his mind.

She felt so good, his body resting on top of her, with his hair brushing against her body, that she almost wanted to confess to him that she loved him.

₊˚⊹ ᰔ TAGLIST: @forklesschowder @bubblebisk @calisnewworld @sunarins-whore @bangchansslut6 @snowyquokka @chansbabygirlsstuff @athforskz @heeyboooo @chrizzztopherbang @yerijaksel @moonlightndaydreams @readr1221 @skzswife @moonndustx @pixie0627 @purp13st4r @rockyhedgehog @linosrealgf @lailac13 @ldysmfrst @bitchysunflower11 @inara-a @kyunchoni @yayanoona @the7deadlysans @ihrtlino

[rose-tinted-juls]

finally i'm finished with my bachelor's thesis and have time to read again! what a feeling!! let's celebrate that with one of my all time favourite stories and a lil list of my fave things about this chapter.

1. i don't even know why but i giggled so hard at the "i don't think anyone would believe i'm at a primary school's art fair in the middle-of-nowhere America" bc i just imagined him irl appearing someplace this random and how it would be. just to imagine him surrounded with kids though at an art fair is making me melt actually

2. the way charles blushes when she calls him charlie!!! he's just so asfwurjfkadsd

3. the two little boys nash and wyatt and the way their faces light up when they find chris and the way they speak with this child-like broken english is just so adorable and also so good and real.

4. "she picks him up from the airport late friday night, just in time to bicker in the middle of a liquor store about wine" had me cackling. they are such a couple. otp for real. + honestly the way charles is just horrified at the idea that chris wants to buy wine in a box is so funny especially when i can clearly imagine him in this situation

5. when charles greets bill and cindy without chris being around 😭 "he knows how to charm" yes he does i'm sure 😭 "knows he's going to be working at it for a while, probably. he's more than willing to put in the hours" STOPPP. where do i find a charles for myself? 😭

6. "i don't want to have her come if she doesn't feel comfortable" this!!! thank you for being a perfect man charles leclerc.

7. "he's been called a lot of things over the years, but good egg might be a new one" this deserved it's own point in this list bc i can just see the slightly confused look in his eyes hearing someone call him a good egg. so precious.

8. the way chris' accent gets stronger when around her family, and how charles finds it cute and sweet. i don't even know why such a simple thing made my heart happy but it did so i'm adding it to this list.

9. "she slots into her comfortable position at charles' side, and his arm is tossing itself over her shoulder before he even realises it's happening. it's habit, almost, to keep her close." catch me bawling my eyes out over here 😭 + this conversation: "y'all are talking about me?" - "always." bc it's just ahhhh. i love them. if it's not obvious already.

10. "they're cute and annoyingly couple-ey all night" i'm just soft. such a simple sentence and i'm over here melting. + the way chris makes everyone feel the most important in the room when she's talking with them + the way charles starts to remember the names even when there's a lot. as someone coming from a large ass family and family friend circle, i know how hard it is to remember and also appreciate him for even trying in the first place. (+ charles feeling and probably looking awestruck at chris 😭)

11. charles and his inner conflict of do i love her or do i not love her is just *chefs kiss*. the way he feel's like he loves her so much he's almost sick with it. the way he lists things that should make him not love her at all like the box of wine, her driving style, how she cries so easily, the glitter everywhere and country music. and yet. AND YET. "he doesn't love her, and then she laughs and he can feel it in his fucking gut, feels the urge to laugh when he doesn't get the joke [...] he wants to laugh because she's laughing and her laugh makes the world a better place and he loves her so bad it hurts." I'M LITERALLY SOBBING. also charles pls just confess. at least to yourself. you know you love her.

ahh anyway this chapter was just sooooo soft it made me melt many times and it was all i needed right now after months of non-stop stress. mackie, you and your writing style never fail to make my heart flutter and my eyes tear-filled. i love you so so much and unlike charles i'm not afraid to say it lol jk and thank you for yet another amazing chapter of this awesome story. <333

miss americana and the heartbreak prince

—08. It's So Sweet —word count: 5.2k —warnings: none :) love, mackie... um... yeah. yeahhhh. sorry sorry sorry if you still read this fic. surprise I guess! its NOT as dead as you thought it was. See you guys again in four months. hopefully sooner if there is a God.

Charles, teeth dug into his tongue so hard he can taste copper, manages to keep from slipping up for the remainder of his time in Georgia. He swallows it down, chokes on an I love you everytime she looks at him for days that feel like an eternity. 

The flight out to France that marks the end of his stay had spent weeks serving as a dreadful backmarker, but now it was one of solace, saving him from himself. He knows better than to spit out “I love you” two months in. He knows better, but he also knows. Simple as that. He just knows. 

He’s good at keeping it down during phone calls and voice memos and FaceTimes because there’s no fucking way he’s stupid enough to say it over the phone. Whenever he does finally deem the time to be right, it’ll be inches from her face, with all the time in the world ahead of them. Her smile will be there, just waiting to be kissed. 

It definitely will not be while she’s grading papers or reviewing a movie or putting purple refills in her pen, even though he finds himself thinking just how plain and simple he loves her when she’s doing those things. 

– – –

Charles spends the holidays with his family in France, coming pretty much directly from his time with Chris and her family in Georgia. 

They quiz him like there’s no tomorrow about all of it; on Chris, and her family and her city and her life. He thinks he does a half-decent job at keeping his cards close to his chest; hiding his tells and acting completely normal and regular and plain about it all. 

Well. He can be coy and secretive to everyone but his mom. Mother’s always know when their sons are in love, and Pascale has always been particularly apt at seeing straight through her boys and the bullshit they try to feed her. 

He’s helping with dinner dishes—working hard to get those extra points towards being the favorite son this weekend—when she confronts him about it. He knows he’s in trouble. He’s never been able to lie to her in a way that was even sort-of convincing. 

“So, Chris…” she hums, drying three two forks at once with a damp towel. “Is this going to be something?” She asks. Charles shrugs, squeezing more blue dish soap onto the plate in his other hand. “That’s too much,” she remarks. 

He ignores the comment, moves the scrubbing sponge over the plate in small circles. “It’s new, still.”

“But you like her?”

He chuckles. Of course he likes her. He wouldn’t be dating her, traveling to see her, introducing her to his family if he didn’t at least like her. That’d just be cruel. “I like her a lot,” he says. I like her the most, he bites his tongue. He rinses the soap from the plate. 

Pascale nods, soft smile on her lips when she takes the plate from his hand, drying it carefully. “Just like, is that right, Charles?”

He knows what she means, what she’s implying. They both know she’s right, too, but he can’t stand to admit it. He feels like if he does, if he actually speaks the words out loud, there’s no way he’s going to be able to keep it in anymore. It’ll be breaking the seal, and he can’t. Not yet. He doesn’t have it in him yet. “Maman,” he says, and his tone is laced with her answer, soft and sweet and pleading in a desperate way. 

She smiles, sets the plate down onto the counter gently. It still clatters against the marble. “I know,” she hums, hand finding his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze.

Charles spends New Year’s Eve in London. He’s with his brothers and his friends and like, all of their girlfriends. He’s been pathetically texting her the entire trip going on about i’ll buy your ticket if you want to come and it would be so much more fun with you here.

What Charles doesn’t know is that Chris is on her way, and that she’d been planning the surprise with Joris for three weeks. After a red eye flight from Atlanta that lands a little before two in the afternoon in London, Joris manages to sneak off from the group to meet her at the hotel and give her a key to his room. She hides out there for most of the afternoon while Joris tries to convince the group to head back to the hotel for a few hours without spoiling the surprise of why they should go back to the hotel in the middle of the day. 

When he finally gets them back to the hotel, he waits fifteen minutes to text her the all clear, to let her know that she can come and execute the surprise. 

It takes her an almost comical amount of time to find his room, considering it’s in the same hallway as everyone else’ rooms, and only ends up being three or four doors down from where she’d started. When she finally finds it, she’s hit with a sudden wave of anxiety. 

What if he doesn’t want me here? She worries. Her hands get clammy and she stands there in front of the door like a complete idiot just waiting for her body to do something, to do anything. Finally, she brings her fist to the door and knocks. 

Voices are muffled and heavy feet shuffle on the other side of the door before finally, after what feels like an eternity of loud bickering from the boys about who’s going to open the door, Chris is face to face with Charles, stupid, toothy grin on her face. “Oh,” he says. 

Behind him, the guys jeer in French, but neither of them are paying any attention. Chris can't stop laughing, standing there, staring at Charles in the doorway. He stares right back, his eyes a window into the gears that turn behind them, processing… processing… processing so incredibly slowly. “Are you gonna hug me, or just stare at me?” She finally asks, and he laughs, snapping into reality, pulling her into a tight hug. 

“What are you doing here?” He questions, pressing a hard kiss into her hair, and then he laughs even harder. “How did you get here?”

– – –

Chris isn’t there for more than a couple days—she has to be back at work as winter break winds to a close, and Charles has training camp in Italy at the end of the week. It’s a quick visit, but they make the most of it, and they do get their new year’s eve kiss. 

It’s been, like, a month and a half since Chris was last in Monaco, but it’s been just two and a half weeks since someone posted a TikTok of Charles and her walking around Monte Carlo together. That means, it’s been two weeks of Chris stumbling upon, and falling down rabbit holes of, Charles’ fan accounts desperately trying to put a face to the back of the head of the girl in the video. 

She’s less interested in are they going to figure out who I am and more interested in are they at least, like, close? The answer is no. No, they are not even kind-of close to connecting Chris with him. It’s all models and friends and people he follows on Instagram and even one ex-girlfriend, but definitely no American kindergarten teachers. 

The fire is only fed, though, when on New Year’s Eve, drunk on Moscow Mules and equipped with the world’s most fashionable LED glasses, Charles is posted showing off the look. Under his arm, equally as drunk off espresso martinis, is Chris, engaged in conversation with Joris beside her. 

It’s been two-thousand twenty-three for fifteen minutes, and Instagram explore pages across the world are already filled with pictures of the side of her head and Charles’ goofy heart-eyed glasses.

Chris is too drunk to know, much less care, but when she does find out about it, she won’t be bothered. She thinks that maybe she never will be a big deal—certainly not as big of one as he seems to think it is. Nothing is going to happen, she tells him so many times it doesn’t even sound like a sentence anymore. Who cares if everyone figures out who I am?

January isn’t much but settling into a routine. They’re both busy with a million and one different things—just a little peek into any sort of future they hope to have together—and it’s the end of the month before they see each other in person again. 

Every post he makes on social media—every video, photo, story, mention, and repost is run through a microscope, carefully dissected searching for a repeat like and commenter, for an unfamiliar woman’s voice or a hand or a coat or a head of hair. Names fly around in a tornado of guesses, and none of them are correct. 

It’s an easy routine to fall into; scheduled phone calls, FaceTime dates twice a week, and sneakily sent texts in the middle of the workday. Sometimes it feels like they aren’t all that far apart, like he could walk out the front door and get into his car and drive for fifteen minutes and be at her house, eat dinner at the same table, fall asleep at the same time, in the same bed. Other times, they can feel every step of the four-thousand, six-hundred, ninety-five miles that separate them, when it’s all pictures of dinner and goodmorning texts seen three hours later and delayed, laggy FaceTime calls. 

It’s on one of those calls, where her face is frozen mid-conversation, that she’s gushing about how excited she is for some school event at the end of the month, the Art show, she’d called it, and when—after sorting out the camera issue for the time being—he’d asked for clarification on what exactly an Art show is, she’d explained the whole event with a big, excited smile on her face. 

“Oh my gosh!” She’d laughed, pulling her legs underneath her. “Okay, so, it’s the coolest thing. Basically, the art department displays all of the art the students have made so far this year all throughout the year, and the kids get to show it off to all their family. They set up a book fair in the library, and they serve ice-cream in the cafeteria,” she explains, “All the teachers go, and they bring their families, too,” she nods. “It’s really cool. I like to see how proud the kids are of their work.”

He decides then, in that very moment, that he doesn’t want to hear about this in text messages and photos and Facetime calls. He wants to be there—feel her energy, her pride, her smile. It just pours out of his mouth, what if I came? And then, before she can even come up with a response, If that’s okay, obviously. If you even would like, want that, you know. 

She bites down on a smile. “I thought you wanted to keep things quiet?” she chuckles, “be all protective of me and stuff?” 

Charles shrugs. “I don’t think anyone would believe I’m at a primary school’s art-fair in the middle-of-nowhere America.”

“I mean, I don’t care,” she explains, tucking her bangs behind her ears. “But you do. I’d love it if you could be there.”

He smiles. “You’d love it?”

“I would!” She laughs, leaning forward, closer to the camera. “You’d better come for more than just a day though,” she continues, slumping back against the couch behind her, picking at the cuticles on her thumb, raising her brows when she quietly adds: “I can think of lots of other things I’d love to do with you.”

He shakes his head, dimples digging into his cheeks. “You’re a tease, Christyn,” he taunts, and her head shoots up from her cuticle. 

“You have such a dirty mind, Charlie!” she laughs, and his cheeks burn at the nickname, at the accusation. 

“Don’t call me that,” he mutters, and she only laughs harder, smiles bigger. 

“Why?” She teases, crossing her arms over her chest, cocking her head to the side playfully.  “Because it makes you blush?”

– – – 

There’s really only one of Chris’ students that Charles knows by name: Quinn. Or, as Chris usually refers to her, my sweet, sweet, little Quinnie. Quinnie is not at the art show. Chris goes on to explain that she and her family are  never at any of the school events—no open houses, no field trips, no choir recitals or art shows or parent teacher conferences. If it’s not a free event that takes place during school hours, neither Quinn or her siblings will be there, and their Mother will never be there because she’s always at work. 

So, no Quinn to win over. He does, however, meet what may be the cutest kid he’s ever been face-to-face with in Landry, a little girl with two long brown braids and a strawberry patterned dress on. Landry is the first of her students to find their teacher, and completely ignores him to tug Chris’ arm towards the little girl’s artwork hung in the hallway. 

“I’ll be right back,” she says hurriedly, over her shoulder, letting the little girl pull her away. Charles nods and flashes her a quick wink before she’s properly whisked away, leaving him with nothing better to do than shove his hands deep in his pockets and analyze the artwork of primary school students. 

When she finds him again, no Landry in tow, she links her arm through his, leaning her head against his shoulder. “She told me I have a cute boyfriend,” she says.

“No, she did not,” He laughs, but his ears blush pink. 

“She did,” she nods. “She said you were ‘oh my goodness he is soooooo cute,’” Chris repeats, in a sing-songy tone. “I said, ‘I know right! He’s the cutest.’”

“Whatever,” Charles mutters, running his other hand through his hair. “Where’s the ice-cream at, anyway?”

Two styrofoam bowls of vanilla ice-cream slices—one covered in rainbow sprinkles, the other with chocolate syrup and a maraschino cherry—later, and Chris and Charles are sitting at Chris’ desk in her classroom, him in the green spinning chair, her on the desk itself. 

Two boys, who Chris refers to after they leave the room as Nash and Wyatt, are bouncing off the walls with excitement when they turn the corner into Chris’ classroom, their faces lighting up when they find her there. “Miss Elliott!” One of them shouts, half-out of breath. “The book fair has posters of your brother!” He explains. 

“Yeah!” The other chimes in. “I see-ed it when my sister was getting a poster of,” he takes a big breath, “of, uh, a princess poster or something.”

“Yeah, and I get-ted this one!” The first kid adds, unrolling the paper in this hand to reveal a black and white Fortnite poster, demonstrating the dances from the game. “Cool right?” He asks, and Chris nods. 

“So cool!” She says, “where are you going to hang it?” 

Charles leans back in the chair, spinning slightly side to side, eating his ice-cream and just observing the interaction. 

“Um, probably in my bedroom.”

Chris nods again, “perfect place for it,” she agrees. 

– – – 

He’s in Georgia for three days; Friday to Sunday, and spends all of it with Chris, almost entirely at her house. The art show is on Friday night, but he finds himself playing sleepover host with Chris on Saturday when Reid appears with a backpack, a pillow, and a baby blanket Chris tells him not to refer to as a baby blanket. 

Chase is racing in Los Angeles this weekend, and left town on Tuesday, leaving Hannah alone on Mom duty. That would be all fine, if the weekend didn’t fall on the one weekend a month she works. Bill, Cindy, Chris, and Hannah’s mom have been helping to pick up the slack left in Chase’ absence. 

It all comes together to result in him sitting in the middle of the living room, on the floor, surrounded by every blanket and pillow in the entire house on a Saturday night—a four-year-old boy sitting across from him, hanging on his every word, and his girlfriend in the other room making popcorn. 

He’s been tasked with coming up with, and executing the plan for a super, super, cool boy-fort that Auntie Chris can come into, I guess. 

A fort that fits into that description is a lot easier in theory. In Practice, however, he’s faced with the nephew he desperately needs the approval of, and a pile of purple and pink and sparkly and fluffy blankets and pillows. 

It takes all four of the dining table chairs, a curtain rod from the screened-in porch, a fitted sheet, and a box fan, but the fort is quickly commissioned, and gets Reid’s stamp of approval when he moves his pillow, favorite blanket, and definitely not a baby-blanket, baby-blanket into the build. 

Chris is behind them momentarily, knocking on the seat of one of the dining chairs before Reid permits her to enter. She crawls in, laptop and big bowl of popcorn in either hand. Reid is sandwiched between the two of them, Cars blanket covering his little frame, eyes glued to the screen while buttery fingers bury themselves in the popcorn bowl. 

Reid is asleep about five minutes after the popcorn bowl is empty, Chris running her fingers through his short brown hair while soft little snores leave his lips. Her head rests on his pillow, just above his head, and she watches the movie. Charles watches her, arm propped up at the elbow, holding his head up. She’s so soft. So sweet. It ties him up in knots. 

He feels like a child when she catches him staring, her eyes glancing over to him and making unexpected contact. His cheeks burn and his eyes dart away, back to the screen, to the movie. She giggles softly, barely loud enough for him to hear over his sudden mortification.  “Beautiful fort you’ve built here,” she says, and he looks back at her, meets her eyes properly this time. 

“Thank you,” he chuckles. “I’m thinking maybe I will make it my new career after racing.” Charles nods. Chris nods. A smile dances its way across her lips, turning the corners up gently. It makes him smile, too. “Charles Leclerc: Professional fort builder.”

“Oh,” She chuckles. “I can hear it now. You’ll be a household name.”When Charles wakes up, credits are rolling on the laptop screen and Chris’ hand is moving softly over his shoulder. He’s the bridge of his nose and picking the sleep out of his eyes and trying to get his bearings. All he’s sorted out so far is that Chris is here, he’s fucking boiling, and there’s a sleeping kid between them. He squints his eyes—like the dim light from the black credit screen is too bright for him—until she comes into focus. She points to the exit of the fort. “Bed,” she mouths.

“Well,” Chris shrugs, bringing a forkful of salad to her mouth. “I think you’ve won Reid over.”

Charles laughs on her phone screen. He’s in Italy… or Monaco… or… she’s not really sure, to be honest. It’s hard to keep track sometimes, when he’s always somewhere new. He’s in bed, wherever he is, the lamp from her kitchen casting the only light in his dark room. “Is that right?”

“Oh yeah,” she nods. “I had the pleasure of  reminding him you weren’t here this afternoon. He wasn’t happy with me.” She remembers it well, his declaration that Charles and Me are going to play games today, and remembers better the little, defeated oh, right after she had to remind him Charles had left the day before. 

Charles chuckles, shaking his head and rolling his eyes playfully. “I told him goodbye!”

“I know!” She says, taking another bite, her hand covering her mouth while she talks around the lettuce. “He thought you meant goodbye for the day,” she explains, swallowing. “Not goodbye for a while.”

Charles frowns. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize!” Chris laughs, poking her fork around her bowl. “I love that he likes you so much, it’s adorable,” she hums. “He’s absolutely devastated you won’t be at his birthday party, though.”

Charles scoffs, his mouth dramatically falling open. “No way. You didn't tell me it was his birthday!”

“Because it’s not for like, two weeks!” She defense, laughing. “I wasn’t even thinking about it.”

“When is it?”

She cocks her head to the side, already knowing what he’s about to say, and unscrews the top of her water bottle. “His birthday’s the sixteenth, but the party is the eighteenth.”

“I’ll be there.”

“No you won’t. You have testing.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yeah,” she insists. “On Monday you have to be in Bahrain.”

“Monday is not Saturday.”

Chris doesn’t tell anyone outside of Chase and Hannah that Charles is flying in, and they definitely don’t tell Reid about it, just in case it falls through for any of the million reasons it could possibly fall through because of. 

It was a last minute-trip, after all, and it seems like every second of Charles’ time is accounted for right now, so  Chris is prepared at any moment to get a text or a call apologetically explaining that he got pulled into something else. That call never comes, and she picks him up from the airport late Friday night, just in time to bicker in the middle of a liquor store about wine. 

“Absolutely not, baby.” He says, shaking his head, a truly horrified look on his face. 

“You don’t even drink wine!” She insists, holding a three-liter box of Franzia. “This is perfectly fine.”

His eyes go wide, brows raising like he can’t believe what he’s hearing. “It’s in a box.”

She rolls her eyes. “It’s for a fifth birthday party.”

“It’s not for the five-year-old,” he argues, picking two bottles of overpriced chardonnay from the shelf. “We’ll get these.”

– – – 

Much to the dismay of the other, they show up to the party the next afternoon with one box and one bottle. 

Reid is upstairs playing with some kid that Chris is related to somehow, she’s sure, so their arrival goes unnoticed by the birthday boy. Instead, Chris is heaving the box of wine onto the kitchen island, greeting a visibly stressed Hannah with a hug. Charles follows closely behind, setting his bottle down next to her box, following the hug train to Hannah. 

“Look great, as always, Hannah,” He says, and Hannah laughs. 

“I’m a mess, the house is a mess. Reid,” she looks to Chris, “Lord have mercy on me, your nephew has dressed himself.”

Chris scowls, and then shrugs. Charles laughs. “He can be Chandler’s nephew, today,” she says. 

“He’s still your godson, though,” Hannah reminds. 

“Oh, don’t I know it!”

Charles takes Chris’ coat with his own, hands them both up in the mud room that’s just off the kitchen. He hears Hannah calling for Reid while he does it, telling him to come down and say hello to your auntie. Auntie Chris. He loves the way Reid says it—Annie Chris—or, when he really wants to stir some shit up, which Charles has come to learn is just about all of the time, Reid will call her Miss Elliott. 

Everyone hears him before they see him, little feet making heavy noises as they hurry down the stairs so quickly he might as well have just jumped off the landing and tuck’n’rolled his way into the kitchen. He’s bouncing on his feet, talking to Chris animatedly with his back turned to Charles when he appears in the mud-room doorway. Immediately, Chris is glancing up to him and covering Reid’s eyes with her hands, turning him to face Charles. “I have a surprise for you, Reidy.”

“What?” He squirms. “What is it?”

“More like who is it?” Hannah says, and Reid gasps. 

“Chucky?” He asks, and Chris is grinning at Charles, adjusting her hands over the boy’s eyes so one hand covers them both. With the other hand, she pokes Reid’s side right where he’s ticklish and makes him giggle. 

“Who?” She asks, his belly laugh making her laugh, too. 

“Sharles!” Reid exclaims, breathless from laughing so hard. “Sha-rle,” He laughs out, enunciating the poorly mocked accent.

“Wrong,” Chris says, and then takes her hand off his eyes to reveal Charles. 

Reid is slamming into Charles’ legs before he can even squat down to give the kid a proper hug, settling for just hugging his legs. “You comed!” He cheers. 

“Come on, Mate!” Charles says, ruffling the little boy’s hair. “You didn’t think I would miss such an important birthday?”

Chris watches the whole interaction with a giddy smile on her face. Hannah watches, too, while she stirs a crock pot full of nacho cheese. Reid fills Charles in on everything that’s happened to him since Charles left, and is already asking if Charles wants to go play catch outside with the football he’s gotten from his dad earlier that week, on his actual birthday. When Hannah slides behind Chris, between her body and the cabinets, muttering a quick behind you and grabbing a ladle from a drawer, she gives Chris’ shoulder a soft squeeze. 

– – – 

Chris is MIA when Bill and Cindy turn up, arms full of food and gifts for their only grandchild, but Charles is in the backyard, standing around a smoking fire pit with Chase and Reid and other people he remembers meeting from the wedding, but who’s names he wouldn’t be able to remember if there was a gun held to his temple. 

Bill and Cindy wander out shortly after they arrive, looking for the birthday boy, and Charles handles the introductions all by himself—a handshake to Dad, a compliment to Mom, and hugs for both of them. He knows how to charm. Knows he’s going to be working at it for a while, probably. He’s more than willing to put in the hours. 

“I didn’t know you were comin’, son,” Bill says, and Charles is nodding, hands in his jacket pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Yeah, it was a kind of… last minute choice.”

“Aw,” Cindy hums. “What a sweetheart. How long are you in town for?”

“Just a couple days,” he explains. “Chris is off work this week, but I have to get to Bahrain in a couple days. Get used to the timezone and everything.”

“Ah,” Bill nods. “Season’s starting up again, that right?”

“Eh,” he shrugs. “It never stops, it feels like,” and Bill nods. 

“Don’t I know it, boy.”

“Is Chrissy planning on coming out to any of your races?” Cindy asks, linking her arm through Bill’s, leaning against him around the fire. “I know she told us that y’all are keeping it pretty hush-hush for now.”

“Eventually, I hope she can,” he says. “I don’t want to have her come if she doesn’t feel comfortable.”

Cindy nods, smiling to herself. “Smart answer, honey,” she says, and Bill laughs. “You’re a good egg.” Charles chuckles softly, if only because he doesn’t know what to say to that. He’s been called a lot of things over the years, but good egg might be a new one. 

Just then, Chris is pushing open the sliding door on the back deck, stepping out with her coat on, the hood pulled up over her head, her hands hidden in the sleeves. “Well, speak of the Devil,” Bill says, greeting his daughter with a tight hug. 

“Uh oh,” Chris laughs, following suit with a hug for her mom, too. “Y’all are talking about me?”

He’s come to learn that her accent is never anywhere as strong as it is when she's around family. He’s familiar with the pattern of it, and does the same thing after long breaks away from speaking English or Italian. It takes a while to settle back into translating your thoughts. He thinks it’s probably pretty similar, even if she’s not translating from another language. He thinks it’s cute, when the southern twang gets extra prominent. It’s cute, and it’s sweet, and she sounds like a movie character sometimes. 

She slots into her comfortable position at Charles’ side, and his arm is tossing itself over her shoulder before he even realizes it’s happening. It’s habit, almost, to keep her close. “Always,” he says. 

– – –

They’re cute and annoyingly couple-ey all night. He doesn’t care if she’s related to or friends with almost everyone here, he’s never not amazed at just how easily she can find home in any conversation. Sometimes he wonders if he looks as awestruck about it as he feels, watching her put on this masterclass with everyone she talks to—from passing, brief conversations about how good Hannah’s food is and how old Reid is getting, to the long, sit-down chats about work and her life and their lives. It’s so crystal clear that she makes everyone feel important—the most important person in the room—and he;s even starting to remember names. 

There’s a lot of names to remember. 

There’s nobody that feels quite as important to Chris as Charles does, though, he’s sure of it. In fact, he’s not sure there’s another person on Earth that could manage to make a social event into something so… recharging for him. She just radiates energy, truly. It’s in the atmosphere, just being in her proximity, just having an arm around her or their fingers intertwined or the smell of her perfume on his clothes is enough. 

He loves her so horribly that he’s almost sick with it. He’s biting his tongue all night. Hell, he’s even trying to talk himself out of the now months old revelation. 

Like, she drinks wine from a fucking box. A box. Of wine. And she sees absolutely no problem with it. She wants to drag him around to every person, to engage in every conversation. She changed her perfume or her shampoo or her laundry detergent or something, because she smells different than the last time he was with her. She drives like an elderly woman—Jesus fucking Christ, she takes the speed limit so seriously it’s hard to sit in the passenger seat and let it happen. She cried three times on the way from Atlanta. Three times, because she saw some roadkill that wasn't even identifiable, and couldn’t stop thinking about it.  She’s covered in glitter, like, all the time. And so is her stuff. It’s on her face and her hands and her clothes and every surface of her house. Glitter and spelling tests and like, six variations of the same travel coffee mug. She listens to country music as if it’s the only genre of music that exists, and she listens to it all the time. He doesn’t love her. He doesn’t. If he did, he wouldn't have been able to keep it in for so long. 

He doesn’t love her, and then she laughs and he can feel it in his fucking gut, feels the urge to laugh even when he doesn’t get the joke, even when he misses entirely what is making her so happy. He wants to laugh because she’s laughing and her laugh makes the world a better place and he loves her so bad it hurts.

last chapter masterlist next chapter

[vigsilantes]

date night (adrian chase x reader)

Pairing: Adrian Chase x Reader Summary: you and adrian are on a date and run into the 11th street kids. Word Count: 1.5k Tags: Established Relationship, Reader-Insert, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Fluff, Making Out, Idiots in Love, Swearing, Drinking, Post Season 1, Comfort, Warnings: swearing, drinking

>>>(read on ao3)<<<

It was very rare for you and Adrian to go on dates. With all of the missions you go on with the team, and also working your separate jobs, there is never time to just go out for the night and have some fun. Even before you both met the 11th Street Kids, when you first started dating, you only went on a small handful of actual dates. It doesn’t bother either of you though, because working and living together makes you happy. But, on the very rare occasion you have time off, you and Adrian try to have fun.

Tonight, Harcourt shockingly gave everyone the night off, which you and Adrian were grateful for. In the Vigilante-mobile leaving the team, you were incredibly happy. With you and Adrian both not having to work your other jobs, and having some free time from the 11th Street Kids, the two of you wanted to go out. Rather, Adrian had already decided on everything he wanted to treat you to, and he was filling you in.

“Okay so first we’re gonna get dinner, not at Fennel Fields though, I know you’re sick of it even though I have a discount, I’m kinda sick of it too honestly, then we’ll go to the movies, but we’re gonna just make out during the whole thing, then the bar, where we’ll get wasted, go home, and fuck like crazy!” Adrian said cheerfully as he drove.

“That’s quite the plan,” you smiled and wiggled your eyebrows. “I’m honestly shocked Emilia gave us the night off, I’m not complaining though,” you stated.

“I knowwww right, sometimes she can be nice,” Adrian admitted. Emilia is strict most of the time, but she has a soft spot for you all once in a while. “Since her and Chris started fucking, or dating… I don’t really know what they are, but since they started doing… whatever the hell they’re doing, she’s let her guard down for sure.”

“I like them together, she’s smartened him up a lot,” you said, and Adrian huffed. He still holds Chris to such a high pedestal it’s so easy to mess with him. At that moment Adrian pulled into the drive-in of your favorite burger place, they make the perfect fries here. You will always love this place, Adrian was actually the person to introduce you to this drive-in years ago. He looked over at you with a wide smile.

“Great choice of food, babe,” you told him, and smiled back at him. He drove up to the window and ordered for you, he knows what you always get, which made you smile once again. You got the food, and while eating, Adrian talked your ear off, like always, which you loved. After eating the burger and half of your fries, giving the rest of them to Adrian, you were full, and it was actually getting late.

“Ade, why don’t we skip the movie and just go get a few drinks?” you suggested, “then we can get home sooner, if you catch my drift,” you hinted while wiggling your eyebrows, he shook his head.

“Oh, hell yeah!” he said enthusiastically, “woulda been a waste of money just to make out during the movie anyways, it’s so expensive for no reason,” he pointed out.

“Right, why does it cost so much fucking money to see a movie?” you asked, knowing neither of you had an answer.

“I mean I would pay all of the money I have to make out with you, but-“ he started.

“We can make out for free right now!” you suggested, blushing. He instantly moved in close to you and kissed you.

He slowly gradually moved away from you and said, “You’re the best, babe. For real.” You smiled at him, still inches away from his face, you pecked him again. His cheeks were pink, and you adored how easily he blushed. He then put his hands on the wheel and headed towards your favorite bar. The ride was short, and after a couple minutes you arrived.

While entering the bar, Adrian ran in front of you and held the door open for you and motioned for you to go through it. Taking a quick glance, you saw that it was practically empty, except for people at a few tables and a small section of the actual bar. While looking for a seat, you saw a familiar group of four people. Emilia, Ads, John, and Chris were all sitting at a table and while looking at them, Leota made eye contact with you.

“Heyy, it’s the lovebirds!” she shouted and pointed towards you and Adrian. Adrian chucked at her calling you lovebirds and Em, Chris, and John all looked towards you two. Adrian scooped up your hand and you walked to them, smiling.

“Of course we’d run into you guys,” you said jokingly. Leota and John grinned. Adrian found two chairs so you two could sit.

“What are you guys doing here?” Adrian asked.

“Drinking, what does it look like?” Chris plainly said, Adrian nodded. Emilia softly hit Chris on the arm.

“Wait, you guys came here and didn’t invite us?” when you said that Adrian furrowed his brows, realizing they made plans without inviting you two.

“Adrian told us you were going on a date like as soon as I gave you the night off,” Emilia said, John laughed at how she said it.

“Wow what a fun date coming here,” Chris said sarcastically, “you couldn’t have done something more fun?” he coldly questioned.

“We did have fun, and still are, just FYI, and we totally made out a bunch,” Adrian bragged, “and we're gonna have more fun later when we get home!” he stated. Leota rolled her eyes and Emilia just took a deep sip of her beer. Chris scoffed. “The fun that I’m talking about is fucking,” Adrian said nonchalantly, which made everyone groan. You laughed. Adrian then went up to the bar to order you two drinks.

“How long have you guys been here?” you asked, starting conversation while Adrian was at the bar.

“Well, this is my third beer,” John replied and tipped his glass to you. Chris chugged the rest of his beer.

“I now need another one,” Chris declared as he waved at the bartender for another round.

“I’m backkkkk,” Adrian said, his voice getting louder as he sat next to you and handed you your drink. “Did you miss me?” Adrian hummed to you, you nodded.

“Course,” you told him, again, everyone groaned.

“Ugh, god,” Emilia said with feign disgust in her voice. The others shook their heads disapprovingly at your affection.

You all had drinks and passed time by chatting, and after your second beer, Adrian, John, and Chris got up to play pool. You, Leota, and Emilia stayed at the table, and watched the guys play, figuring it would be fun watching them. Chris pretended to be good, but wasn’t as good as he said he was, he was all talk, and John was actually doing better than Chris. Adrian, on the other hand, was killing it. His precision from his Vigilante-ing came in handy, and he was destroying both Chris and John.

You couldn’t help but stare at Adrian, though. He looked so fucking hot while playing, well, he’s always hot, but he was teasing you. He kept looking over at you before making a perfect shot, which turned you on even more. And the fact that he was winning was hot too. You were shaken out of your haze by Emilia and Leota laughing at Chris, who was angered by Adrian winning. The whole thing was entertaining to watch, just as you, Em, and Ads suspected.

After the fairly quick game of pool, the guys came back to the table, and Adrian didn’t break eye contact with you. He looked fierce, and his cheeks were bright red. Before he could even make it to the table, you stood up, as heat was running through your body. Without speaking, Adrian quickly fumbled for cash in his wallet and threw it on the table.

“Catch you guys later,” Adrian swiftly said, and took hold of your hand. You got out a soft “Bye!” as Adrian pulled you away.

“Man, what the hell,” you heard Leota say as you walked away, and Emilia chuckled at the interaction.

“Those two are always fucking,” Chris loudly said so you could hear it, everyone else in the bar heard it too, but you didn’t care.

Adrian opened the bar door in a rush, and took a sharp turn. He slammed his lips onto yours and pinned you against the side of the building. Fire ignited in you, and you put your arms around his neck. In between disconnected, hasty kisses, Adrian separated your lips.

“We need to get home, like right now,” he whispered, his voice raspy.

“Yeah,” you said, kissing him again, and running your fingers through his dark hair. “Let’s go to the Vigilante-mobile, babe” you said, and he was not gonna hesitate on your offer. Before unpinning you from against the building he kissed you again.

“Did you have a fun date night? I know it wasn't the most exciting thing ever, like Chris said, but w-”

“I had an incredible time, Ade,” you said truthfully, “thank you for tonight,” you kissed him again.

“Fuck yeah!” he said triumphantly, “Love ya,” he smiled, and pulled you in for another, more passionate kiss.

[dwaynepride]

how ncis characters act when they’re jealous:

characters: leroy jethro gibbs, dwayne pride, tony dinozzo, chris lasalle, tim mcgee, tammy gregorio, nick torres, sebastian lund

a/n: might make a part two with more characters if i get the inspo

leroy jethro gibbs: he wouldn’t realize it was jealousy until somebody points it out. he’s usually wearing this stern look with hard eyes so jethro’s jealousy takes the form of not talking at all. and lots of staring. he would internalize his behavior as being concerned for you, or something not feeling right deep in his gut. and the guy who’s taking up so much of your attention will forever be an annoyance to gibbs.

jethro doesn’t interfere, though. not unless he feels like he has to - until then, gibbs will likely just sulk in the corner until you were free. but you can really start to feel his jealousy once you’re at his side again and he’s barely saying two words to you and still glaring at the annoying bastard. if you ask him what’s wrong, he’ll say it’s nothing. and later, when you both are alone, that’s when he reflects and feels like a stupid ass for acting the way he did.

dwayne pride: honestly, he gets a Kicked Puppy Vibe whenever he’s feeling jealousy. dwayne is a very sensitive person and he feels the loss of your presence like the sunshine hiding behind a cloud. he’ll try to ignore that twisted up feeling in his stomach and go on to enjoy the night, but dwayne always finds you in the crowd. always huffs a little when he sees you with someone else. always reins himself in from stealing your attention away.

later on, his affection is amped up to the max. dwayne will absolutely shine under your attention, and he’ll honestly get a bit clingy for the rest of the night. of course, he knows himself well enough to know what he’s doing. he feels a little embarrassed by it. so maybe some of the kisses he gives you is his secret way of apologizing.

tony dinozzo: he doesn’t get jealous. not at all. why should tony care if this loser keeps making you laugh so fucking hard at jokes that aren’t even funny? he only steps in because this other guy is so wildly unfunny that tony is afraid you might just die of boredom, and as you know so well, tony is a pretty heroic guy. it’s his job to take you far, far away from the asshole who was starting to stand just a little too close.

tony couldn’t hide his jealousy to save his own life. he likes to believe he’s suave and cunning and doesn’t let things get to him. and maybe that’s true for most things. but just as soon as he gets you alone, tony has this primal need to pull you in close and remind you what’s what. he doesn’t like to think of it as proving himself, but the marks on your neck prove differently…

chris lasalle: very little truly gets under christopher’s skin, and jealousy isn’t one of them. sure, he likes your attention, but chris is also very secure in the relationship. it’s kinda hard to feel threatened when he’s the one who lead you into the party, arm over your shoulders, showing you off and giving lots of kisses and doesn’t really give a fuck who sees. he might even revel in the fact that onlookers start to feel a little jealous of him.

if there’s any jealousy to be had, it’s toward your glass because your hands and mouth are all over it, instead of him. it’s toward the music itself for making you move so fluidly and sexy. it’s toward the liquor for putting that big grin on your face when chris should be doing that himself. he does later, rest assured. makes dumb jokes when his hands are all over your body, and he has nothing left to be jealous over.

tim mcgee: if jealousy could be adorable, it would be on tim. he’s prone to self-consciousness and self-doubt, and that would all come out whenever his position with you feels threatened. he loves and trusts you explicitly - it’s just his own dumb head making up crazy thoughts that you’ll find somebody better than him and tim works himself into a frenzy and he ends up embarrassing himself in front of you in some way or another.

at home, tim just apologizes. stutters his excuses with pink cheeks and shaky fingers. it won’t be until a while into the relationship when he’s more confident and self-assured. but until then, sometimes you just gotta wrap your arms around him and hold him tight and let him figure out for himself that you really do love him - even when you can hear abby reassuring him from across the room.

tammy gregorio: when she’s feeling jealous, it’s going to be loud and it’s going to be obvious. tammy will deny it, of course. insist she isn’t the jealous type and that she’s got more self-respect than that. but she’s not the only eagle-eyed person on the team - you can always see her watching you from across the room if somebody’s getting a little too friendly. she’ll tell you over and over she doesn’t feel threatened, but it’s always proven wrong when tammy always subtly puts herself between you and some slimy asshole.

even if you call her out on it later, she wouldn’t really care. in fact, tammy will probably turn it around on you, somehow - ask why you were paying so much attention to how she reacted. did you want her to get jealous? do you think it’s hot when tammy intervenes and puts on her Scary Agent Face? you’ll say no, of course. but she’s a profiler.

nick torres: this man is an opportunist. that’s how he lived as an undercover agent, and that bleeds into his normal life. nick will take the hot, twisted jealousy he’s feeling and turn it into something he can really enjoy. this means coming up to you, grinning at the guy who’s been chatting you up, and really laying it on thick. kissing you, touching you, making sly little comments. nick is also really good at insulting people without actually saying anything rude (which he does.)

nick will act all innocent at home when you confront him. he’ll tell you that he just likes showing his girl off because you’re too fucking cute. but that act doesn’t hold up for very long, and nick just kinda ends up insulting the guy some more by saying he was an idiot and didn’t deserve you and he kinda smelled anyway so why would you ever give him the time of day?

sebastian lund: a man who’s in touch with his feelings knows when he’s feeling jealous, and it just makes sebastian feel guilty. he trusts you more than he trusts anybody else, and he knows you wouldn’t do anything - still, sebastian just gets this unfamiliar tightness in this stomach when he hears you laugh across the room and it wasn’t him you were laughing at. he’ll push it down and try to act nonchalant and like he doesn’t notice you. it doesn’t work. everybody on the team picks up on it and they just look sympathetic.

sebastian would get talkative at home. he can usually talk a lot on normal occasions, but now, he just feels like he wants to have your attention and rambling is the best way for him to do that. sebastian probably won’t even stop talking until you two lay in bed, and his words are stunted by a soft kiss. he’ll eventually feel better - at least until the next day when he’s teased about it.

[clarichoupie]

Random things I noticed, or liked, in “The Quarry” after playing it over and over again. (part 2) (part 1 is here)

I didn't know you could see “Laura's boat” with Jacob by going to the far left of the docks.

Ok, so, I'm not going to talk about Emma's phone even though I should. However! Why, just why, did you put that damn rotor arm in your underwear Jacob?! Who does that?!

Watching Ryan call Dylan an idiot seems so right sometimes. I mean amputating a leg without “equipment” is not a good idea. Even with the werewolf thing. A hand, why not, but a whole leg? Meh, I'm not sure. Sorry Dylan.

When you have to say out loud and confirmed that you're not a b*tch, you often are, Emma.

Choosing the aggressive responses is so satisfying. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing Ryan and Dylan being cute together, but seeing them freak out and insult each other can be just as interesting.

Plus, Ryan's little laugh because he's not convinced that Dylan can shoot with a gun is just adorable.

Why, no matter what you do, Kaitlyn always loses the gun?! I didn't hesitate to give it to you so that you don't even use it!

Watching Dylan freak out is probably one of the most de-stressing things I've ever seen, for some reason. The “F*ck no”, “F*ck dude” and small gestures of fear; yep, it helps me calm down to see him being so scared.

The dialogues between Emma and Jacob just don't make sense. Like, they're really nice and then the next second they're real assholes, without you deciding! Very boring.

Does Jedediah play golf? Or baseball or something? Because he's got a really good swing.

Am I the only one who thinks that the characters' reaction to Kaylee's death is not normal? I mean, they don't need to break down in tears or be as shocked as Ryan who was close to her but damn it! There's a dead body in the pool! Of a girl you know by name and who looks innocent! Murdered in front of your eyes! Be a little sad instead of making jokes about it! (Even you Dylan...especially you)

Besides, when I killed Abi the first time, Ryan, Dylan and Kaitlyn didn't even care about their friend's head on the floor separated from her body. They were just sitting there talking to Laura, calmly. Seriously, these guys are either insensitive or totally insane.

“I'll tell mom." Seriously Chris? Are you like five years old to betray your brother like that to your mom? What is Constance gonna do besides insult Travis anyway, tell him he wasn’t wanted? He probably already knows that.

Where did Laura's eye patch come from? I mean, didn't anyone wonder where that accessory came from? Other than Travis owning pirate costumes or Laura knowing how to sew, I can't think of any other explanation.

When did Abi start acting like a warrior, defending everyone, when just before she was so freaked out that she couldn't do anything?

WHY, just, WHY, when I choose the aggressive option, does Laura think Ryan is flirting with her?!?! These kids really have a dumb view of flirting. Poor Ryan... no wonder why he doesn't understand social interaction or want to spend time alone if everyone is so weird around him.

Speaking of Ryan, I love his lines with Laura when he's upset : “A tour guide?”, “An eye for an eye.”, “All for a boy?”. This guy definitely makes me laugh.

“Jesus, Mary and jazzhands”? ...Sorry what? Do people who speak English really say that?

I thought so much in my first game that Ryan was a traitor (like in the game I won't mention...) but in the end the poor guy was just worried about his friends, it's just too sad.

[hunting-songs]

She had woken up the second Chris breathing had changed from a deep humm of sleep, to the faster breathing of him beeing awake. Still, the Musician continued to lay there comfortably in the warm cocoon under the blanket and listened contently: Listened to Chris sneaking out of the bed, listening to him checking if her eyes were closed,listening to him quietly sneaking away,listening to the shrieking hop of his heatbeat when she asked him to come back to bed. The music-hunter had her eyes closed,listening to the ovely song of the mans flustered breathing that was as adorable to the ears as dimples were to the eyes: "Mhmmmm, I have no idea what you are doing. I can not read minds and I restrain from imagine what other people are thinking as thats very impolite and most of the time just reflects what I am thinking, but I have other ways of finding out what people are up to-", she popped an eye open and tapped her fingers against her chin in a openly theatralic and playful display of thoughtfulness when she already knew the answer anyway. Humming she rolled on her stomach, propping her chin up on one hand while the other danced through the air to a melody only she could hear. "Were you going for a walk? Not close." she did not waited for an answer for the change in Chris heartbeat from one second to the other was enough as an answer so she just continued asking the questions as if she did not needed to breath: "Were you going to the bathroom? Not close." "Were you going to fetch something to drink? Closer. What you wanted to do had to do with drinking or eating in the kitchen." Chris heartbeat changed- where before was relief over her not beeing lose to the truth turned into a guilty song. "Were you going to fetch something to eat? Very close, now I can build up on that." The smile on the young womans round, gentle face became somewhat sharp like from a cat catching a mouse between their paws: "Where you going to fetch something hearty? Not right, so I must go in the other direction. Were you going to fetch something sweet? And considering that guilty little ting behind your heartbeat I can make a conclusion." "Were you going to get the sweets I brought along?" Senritsus finger danced through the air to the melody of Chris' heartbeat before they ended their dance and she simply pointed at the other, winking playfully: "Caught you." Her laughter was a melodic song. She chuckled in all good humor over Chris heartbeat suddenly sounding like that of a child caught with their hand in the cookiejar and she only shaked her head gently. Her hair rustled against the bedsheets: "Normally, I am only doing that with people I am assigned to pump for informations for-", the laughter died promptly, Senritsu still smiled but the following word was nothing but a tiered sigh.The musicianhad hoped- hoped so much!- to not think about it when visiting Chris: "-work." " No, you do not need to comment on that, I will not do that to you again in any way. Its a violetion of privacy I do not enjoy at all. " With a quiet sigh the woman rolled on her back and lay a arm behind her head while her other hand continuted to tap a melody against the banket even if that melody had turned hasty and almost nervouse- her own heartbeat as she rememberd the ours she had spend working for the Nostrade family doing exactly what she had done just there although very much not jokingly. Chris seemed to notice the Musicians change of mood. Chris seemed to notice her hange of behaviour. Chris seemed to notice that she did noticed. A few seconds passed and the woman just chuckled quietly over the change in Chris' heartbeat, she looked up, winking reassuringly: "No need to sing me that song. What I do enjoy however, is listening to your comodo heartbeat when you check the sweets I bring along, taste them and then imagine how you can use them in your pastries. So go on, bring them over from the kitchen, lets share them and then let me listen to that sweet melody of yours I adore so much." [ @bewitchingbaker ]

'come back to bed' @hunting-songs

Senritsu always brought back the best treats from her trips.

Gourmet chocolates, limited edition cookies, speciality cakes and of course obscure tea flavors. The perfect surprise for someone with a sweet tooth like Chris. Only second behind her kisses and hugs, the baker's favorite part of picking up Senritsu was seeing what snacks she would bring.

As always, the musician anticipated his excitement and told him he would have to wait for her treats as it was a surprise. Plus, she loved adding some anticipation to the baker's day.

Of course he was always eager to hear Senrtisu's...song of passion after all of her teasing before leaving.

After a few hours of laughs, smooches, and sweet whispers begging for more the duo ended up in his bed. The musician's relaxing hums and his deep-voiced chuckles eventually helped them doze off. Senrtisu resting comfortably in the baker's massive arms. His dreams were filled with thoughts of what snacks she could have brought (plus he often craved something sweet after their romps).

Upon slowly coming to, the baker checks to see if Senritsu's asleep. After all a peek couldn't hurt. As if he were a cat, he slowly slides out of bed. Tip toeing towards the kitchen with a lick of his lips.

1 step, 2 step. He would have made it to the kitchen if he wasn't surprised by Senrtisu's soft voice.

"Oh! I wasn't sneaking a peak at the snacks you brought," he chuckles with an embarrassed blush. "...I was getting a glass of water."

Liar.

With an embarrassed laugh, he makes his way back to the bed with a smile.

"What'd ya think I was doing?"

[ @hunting-songs ]

[im-in-love-with-pizza-bites]

i adore your work! if it’s not too much, please could i request a female teen!reader (maybe 13/14) x marvel cast (mostly evans) and she’s known for cuddling with them a lot and falling asleep on them? maybe they post photos of it and talk about her being adorable! hope that makes sense <3

Cuddlebug

Mcu Cast X Fem!Teen!Reader, Chris Evans X Teen!Reader

Summary: You like cuddling with your co-stars.

Warnings: Fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff, and more fluff

Reader's Age: 13 at the beginning but then you turn 14.

A/n: thank you for the request!!! This is pure fluff

You joined the cast a couple years ago, Steve Roger's daughter in the movies. You immediately grew close with Chris Evans, seeing as you were in the most scenes with him. Your a hugger, the cast and crew realized that the day they met you. You greeted Evans with a hug, then the others too. In between scenes you'd sometimes fall asleep cuddling with one of them.

Today you were doing an interview with, Sebastian, Evans, Anthony, and Hemsworth. You were sat in between the two Chris's.

"Okay so I've heard that Y/n likes to cuddle with you and the rest of the cast. Is this true?" The interviewer asked, already well into the interview. You cheeks heated at his question.

"Oh it's so true! We have proof!" Anthony said excitedly pulling his phone out. "She always ends up falling asleep on us. So we have some photos."

"Usually on me." Evans smiled.

"This conversation is embarrassing." You muttered hiding your face in your hands. Hemsworth laughed wrapping an around your shoulder. You glared up at him.

"No we actually counted to see who we caught her sleeping on the most. She falls asleep on Evans the most." Anthony chuckled. You hid your face in Evans' shoulder, he just laughed using his opposite hand to pat your head.

"Can we change the topic now?" You mumbled into his shirt.

"What we can't understand you." Sebastian teased.

"Can we change the topic?" You asked once again this time with your face far enough that your words were mumbled.

"Yeah, I have more questions anyway." The interviewer assured.

———

The topic of you falling asleep on your costars didn't come up again until your birthday. Chris Evans was the first to make a post about your birthday... He posted a thread of 4 photos, it started out sweet. A selfie of the two of you, then a photo of you and dodger, the next one was you laying your head on his shoulder, you were clearly asleep mouth hung open, the last photo was both of you on the couch in his trailer you had dodger draped across your lap and head laying on Sebastian's shoulder. The caption was really sweet it said; "I can't believe you were only 11 when you joined the Marvel cast, now your 14. They grow up so fast😢. Happy birthday, Cuddle bug." Ah, the forbidden nickname you gained from your cast mates.

The fans went wild, mostly good but some bad. After he made his post soon came Holland posting something on his story. A photo of you in his trailer half asleep on his shoulder using Harry as a footrest. He kept it simple saying; "Happy Birthday Kiddo!" Fans swooned again.

You reposted all of their posts on your story and said thank you and stuff. You loved the cast but were a little upset they post those photos of you. Though you got over it quickly since you understood they were just teasing you.

Evans did have a lot of photos of you and Dodger sleeping on or next him together. He thought it was the cutest shit ever. So did a majority of the fans. Some hated on you but the cast would take to twitter and call them out and defend you. Which you and your family were grateful for.

Marvel Cast TagList: @the-girl-in-the-chair @gengen64 @piggyjeans @roseeditsss @depressed-barnes

Chris Evans Taglist: @high-on-darren-criss @astrixoxo @cevansrogerss @hamiltonstann @mcushvft @spidyyparker

A/n: It's short I know but I hope you like it!